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itome-Cnatment 



EFOR 



SEXUAL ABUSES. 



1 |5rnrtiral €nat'm 



ON THE NATURE AND CAUSES OF EXCESSIVE AND UNNATURAL SEXUAL INDUL- 
GENCE, THE DISEASES AND INJURIES RESULTING THEREFROM, WITH THEIR 
SYMPTOMS AND HYDROPATHIC MANAGEMENT. 



By R. T. Teall, M.D. 



NEW YORK: 
FOWLERS AND WELLS, PUBLISHERS, 

Clinton Hall, 131 Nassau Street. 

Boston U2 Washington rt. ] 1853 [London, No. 142 Strand. 



Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1858, by 
FOWLERS AND WELLS, 

in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States for the Southern 

District of New York. 



NEW YOEK STEREOTYPE ASSOCIATION, 

201 William Street. 



Z-. ' 



% n i x d ft n 1 1 i n n . 



Notwithstanding the causes and conse- 
quences of undue excitements or abuses of the 
sexual passion have been ably treated by sev- 
eral eminent physiological and medical writ- 
ers, prominent among whom are Graham, 
Alcott, Hitter, Gregory, Deslandes, Lallemand, 
and others, there is still an increasing demand 
for information on the whole subject; and, 
especially, as regards the particular diseases 
and infirmities resulting from this source, and 
the means of recovery* 

Since the true theory of organic trans- 
mission has become generally understood by 



iv Introdu ction. 

well-educated people, the abuses of tlie sexual 
function, and the diseases of tlie generative 
organs, have assumed their just importance in 
the estimation of physiologists and physicians. 
The reproductive function not only lies at the 
foundation of existence itself, hut its integrity 
is essential to the proper development of the 
individual, as well as to the propagation of 
healthy and vigorous offspring. Nor can the 
individual in any way more rapidly waste his 
or her vital energies, nor more surely induce 
nameless diseases and anomalous infirmities, 
nor more certainly hasten on the period of 
decrepitude and decline, than by excesses or 
irregularities in the indulgence of the sexual 
appetite. 

The reason is obvious: probably to the 
reflecting mind self-evident. The very inten- 
sity of the sexual orgasm, when legitimately 
exercised, is sufficiently evincive that it is not 
to be promiscuously nor too frequently excited 
with impunity, while the important purpose 



Introduction. 



it is ordained to accomplish in tlie economy 
of creation, is conclusive of the necessity of 
restraining its exercise within certain limita- 
tions. 

Few persons are aware of the extent to 
which masturbation or self-pollution is prac- 
ticed by the young of both sexes in civilized 
society; and none but those whose peculiar 
position or professional confidence brings them 
into advisory and intimate relations with the 
victims of unnatural indulgences or venereal 
excesses, can have an adequate conception 
of the evils thence resulting. None but the 
experienced medical man can trace the de- 
plorable consequences to feeble, malformed, 
puny, and imperfectly-organized offspring ; 
and no one but the profound physiologist can 
clearly see all the external marks of exhausted 
vitality and premature decay, stamped in- 
delibly on thousands of our young men and 
maidens, otherwise in the bloom of youth, 
health, and beauty. 



v: Introduction. 



Says a writer on this subject: "The hollow, 
sunken eye, the blanched cheek, the withered 
hands, and emaciated frame, and the listless 
life, have other sources than the ordinary 
illnesses of all large communities." 

Lallemand observes : " When a child, after 
having given proofs of memory and intelli- 
gence, experiences daily more and more diffi- 
culty in retaining and understanding what is 
taught him, we may be sure that it is not 
only from unwillingness, from idleness, as is 
commonly supposed. Besides the slow and 
progressive derangement of his or her health, 
the diminished energy of application, the 
languid movement, the stooping gait, the 
desertion of social games, the solitary walk, 
late rising, livid and sunken eye, and many 
other symptoms, will fix the attention of every 
intelligent and competent guardian of youth." 

Nor are many persons sufficiently aware of 
the ruinous extent to which the amative pro- 
pensity is indulged by married persons. The 



Introduction. vii 

matrimonial ceremony does, indeed, sanctify 
the act of sexual intercourse, but it can by no 
means atone for nor obviate the consequences 
of its abuse. Excessive indulgence in tlie 
married relation is, perhaps, as much owing to 
the force of habit, as to the force of the 
sexual appetite. I have had patients who, 
in their ignorance be it said, had provoked 
the sexual crises almost every night, after the 
consummation of the marriage contract, for 
periods of ten, fifteen, and twenty years. The 
result was, of course, in general terms, pre- 
mature old age. They were as dull, languid, 
stiff-jointed, weak, and infirm, at forty and 
fifty years of age, as they should have been at 
seventy and eighty. I have often seen the 
head u silvered o'er" not with age, but with 
white hairs, at forty-five and fifty, and the 
whole expression of face and features wearing 
the impress of more than "threescore and 
ten." But whenever I have had opportunity 
to examine the historical data, I have inva- 



viii Introduction. 

riably found tliat the suicidal indulgence which 
so fearfully anticipated the natural period of 
the " sere and yellow leaf," was not so much 
attributable to the violence of the passion 
itself ; it was, to a great extent, a mere habit, 
and the pleasure derived was rather negative 
than positive— the allaying of a kind of fever- 
ish or inflammatory uneasiness, rather than 
the exquisite pleasure and satisfying enjoy- 
ment which always rewards its legitimate 
exercise. If these same persons had com- 
menced the journey of matrimonial life with 
but a monthly or semi-monthly indulgence, a 
habit far more in accordance with the rules 
of temperance, chastity, and reason, would 
have become established ; the amatory pro- 
pensity would have been as well and even 
better satisfied, and far more pleasurably 
gratified, while the present health and future 
vigor of both parties to the connubial con= 
tract, and also the well-being of the offspring, 
would have been duly regarded. 



ItfTRODUC T I O N. ix 

More lamentable still is the effect of inordi- 
nate sexual excitement on tlie young and 
unmarried. It is not very uncommon to find 
a confirmed onanist, or, rather, masturbator, 
who has not yet arrived at the period of 
puberty. Several cases have come under my 
observation, and many such cases are related 
in the books, in which young boys and girls, 
from eight to ten years of age, were taught 
the method of self-pollution by their older 
playmates, and had made serious encroach- 
ments on the fund of constitutional vitality, 
even before any considerable degree of sexual 
appetite was developed. Here, again, the 
fault was not in the power of passion, but in 
the force of habit. Parents and guardians 
of youth can not be too mindful of the char- 
acter and habits of those with whom they 
allow young persons and children under their 
charge to associate intimately, and especially 
careful should they be with whom they allow 
them to sleep. 

1* 



Introduction. 



It is very true, however, that the sexual 
propensity is often prematurely and preter- 
naturally developed. Perhaps a majority of 
the children of civilized society are not exempt 
from some degree of a forced, unnatural, hot- 
house cultivation of sexuality, both bodily and 
mentally, to the great disadvantage of both 
body and mind ; a misfortune at least as prev- 
alent in the "higher circles" of luxury and 
refinement, as among the " lower orders" of 
poverty and external degradation. 

It may, peradventure, surprise and startle 
some of those fathers and mothers, who, in 
their fond and partial confidence, do not dream 
it possible that their sons and daughters can 
be in danger of injury or contamination from 
this cause, when I assure them that there is 
hardly a day in the year in which I am not 
consulted, personally or by letter, by one or 
more " debilitated young persons," whose de- 
bility commenced and increased with the 
practice of self-abuse. And when it is con- 



Introduction. xi 

sidered that there are many other physicians, 
"regular, irregular, and defective," who prac« 
tice extensively in this class of diseases, be- 
sides several advertising quacks and medicine- 
selling charlatans in all our large cities, who 
drive a profitable trade in peddling out " res- 
torative" nostrums to these deluded victims, 
some idea may be formed of the prevalence 
of the secret vice among us; and, as just 
intimated, the refined, the educated, and the 
accomplished, are as frequently the ruined 
subjects and wretched slaves of the abomi- 
nable habit, as are the low, the vulgar, and 
the illiterate. 

It is customary to designate self-pollution 
as among the " vices." I think misfortv/ne is 
the more appropriate term. It is true that, 
in the physiological sense, it is one of the very 
worst " transgressions of the law." But in the 
moral sense it is generally the sin of ignorance 
in the commencement, and in the end the 
passive submission to a morbid and almost 



xii Introduction. 

resistless impulse. An intimate acquaintance 
with the history of many cases has satisfied 
my mind, that the practice usually commences 
without the remotest idea of criminality, either 
moral or physiological ; but, as with every 
other unnatural or inordinate habit or pro- 
pensity, when it does become a habit, it is 
exceedingly apt to triumph and tyrannize over 
reason, judgment, and conscience. 

The time has come when the rising genera- 
tion must be thoroughly instructed in this 
matter. That quack specific " ignorance," has 
been experimented with quite too long already. 
The true method of insuring all persons, 
young or old, against the abuse of any part, 
organ, function, or faculty of the wondrous 
machinery of life, is to teach them its use. 
u Train a child in the way it should go," or be 
sure it will, amid the ten thousand surround- 
ing temptations, find out a way in which it 
should not go. Keeping a child in ignorant 
innocence is, I aver, no part of the " training" 



Introduction. xiii 

which lias been taught by a wiser than Solo- 
mon. Boys and girls do know, will know, and 
must know, that between them are important 
anatomical differences and interesting physio- 
logical relations. Teach them, I repeat, their 
use, or expect their abuse. Hardly a young 
person in the world would ever become addict- 
ed to habitual self-pollution if he or she under- 
stood clearly the consequences ; if he or she 
knew at the outset that the practice was direct- 
ly destroying the bodily stamina, vitiating the 
moral tone, and enfeebling the intellect. No 
one would pursue the disgusting habit if he 
or she was fully aware that it was blasting all 
prospects of health and happiness in the 
approaching period of manhood and woman- 
hood. 

Certain well-meaning but most unphilo- 
sophical " moral reform" writers, have very 
absurdly advocated the plan of keeping the 
youth of both sexes as much as possible out 
of each others' society, and cultivating a spirit, 



xiv Introduction. 

not of inquiry, but of sfoupidity, as the great 
panacea for repressing libidinous thoughts, and 
restraining precocious licentiousness, " Girls 
and boys should never be allowed to thinh 
that there is a difference in the sexes," says 
one of this class, who advocates the Ttnow-noth- 
ing remedy, and who seems " to think" that 
virtue and chastity are purely negative quali- 
ties. 

Superlatively nonsensical as are all such 
and similar ideas of improving the rising 
generation, they have been, until recently, 
the rule of action with the great majority of 
teachers. There is no prevention of the evils 
we are considering, short of correct physio- 
logical education. There is no cure for their 
numberless ill consequences, save in strict con- 
formity to organic laws ; and all who have 
been so unfortunate as to have become dis- 
abled, diseased, or infirm, by any misuse of 
the genital organs, must exercise great patience 
and determined perseverance in living in all 



Introduction. xv 

respects in conformity with the laws of life 
and health, or they will assuredly fail of a 
perfect restoration. Happy indeed should all 
such persons be, if but a few years of correct 
habits and rigid self-discipline are required to 
recover the vital powers from the shock of 
early dissoluteness. 

There are no specifics in nature which work 
in opposition to the laws of nature. There 
are no drug-shop preparations which can 
reverse her laws. Nor are there any magic 
drops, nor enchanted powders, nor nervous 
antidotes, nor invigorating cordials, etc., etc., 
which can dissever the effect of any act or 
habit from its cause. Every pretender, there- 
fore, who advertises his specific for " debil- 
itated or impotent young persons" is a cheat, 
and his only desire is to defraud the unfortu- 
nate and often weak-minded victim out of his 
money. He is wisest who has least to do with 
the nostrum-venders. 

I must repeat, that, in my judgment, few, 



XVI INTRODUCTION. 



very few young persons would ever defile 
themselves by self-pollution, were they aware 
of the consequences ; or, were they rightly 
instructed in relation to the reproductive 
function, notwithstanding all the exciting causes 
— and their name is legion — in operation. 
They would resist the allurement and the 
impulse almost unto death, rather than so 
debauch and disorganize themselves, if they 
understood the subject in its true light. " Who 
then," says Graham in his Lectures to Young 
Men, " would yield to sensuality, and forego 
the higher dignity of his nature, and be con- 
tented to spend his life and all his energies in 
the low satisfactions of a brute ! when earth 
and heaven are full of motives for noble and 
exciting enterprise ; and when time and eter- 
nity are the fields which lie before him, for 
his achievements of virtue, and happiness, and 
immortality, and imperishable glory ? 

" It is by abusing his organs and depraving 
his instinctive appetites, through the devices 



Intkoduction. xvii 

of his natural powers, that the body of man 
becomes a living volcano of unclean propen- 
sities and passions." 

I will conclude these somewhat desultory 
introductory remarks, with a couple of ex- 
tracts from the numerous communications re- 
ceived on this subject. The first is taken 
from a letter of recent date, written by an 
intelligent school-teacher in a Western state, 
and is a fair sample of hundreds I have 
perused. The other is a part of a communi- 
cation addressed to the late Sylvester Graham, 
by a distinguished teacher and philanthropist, 
of Manchester, England, Both are full of 
instructive admonition. 

44 1 was poisoned with drugs in my cradle, 
and contaminated with swine-flesh in child- 
hood. In my very first lessons on the subject 
of eating and drinking, I was taught that 
pork, ham, sausages, lard, in fact all parts of 
the filthy hog, were the best possible aliment. 
I learned to regard coffee, cider, and even 



xviii Introduction. 

whisky as necessary beverages ; and the ben- 
efit or propriety of using water, either inter- 
nally or externally, was left wholly to the de- 
cision of perverted instinct, until, by chance, 
I got hold of a stray number of the Water- 
Cure Journal. Had I been blessed with a 
perusal of such a glorious messenger of truth, 
and purity, and health, ten years sooner, I 
should now have been true to my nature, 
pure and healthy, instead of the victim of a 
loathsome habit, which had sadly wasted my 
fund of life, and caused me to look on the 
past with unutterable disgust; while I can 
hardly refrain from bitterly reproaching those 
who, instead of l training me in the way 
I should go,' allowed me, yes, absolutely 
forced me, to travel down the broad road of 
physiological transgression to the very brink 
of perdition." 

" I need not tell you how much such a work 
is needed (on advice to young persons). I 
can, however, fully assure you, from my own 



Introduction. xix 



experience, having been a tutor in our public 
schools and colleges for a long period, that the 
practice of self-pollution is as prevalent in our 
land as you have stated it to be in America. 
My experience has been principally with boys, 
and it is its awful prevalence among them 
that concerns me most. Not one in one hun- 
dred ever think that it is morally wrong or 
physiologically dangerous, until the habit has 
become too strong to be overcome. 

" If we would arrest this evil, we must begin 
with boys. With many young men it is 
already too late. For some long time past I 
have spoken to nearly every boy I have had 
any intimate acquaintance with, and am struck 
with the universality of (or at least a knowl- 
edge of) the practice, their utter ignorance 
of its nature, the gratitude with which they 
listen, and the often tearful earnestness with 
which they regret not having been warned 
before. Often is the question asked by them, 
4 Why did not my parents tell me this V 



xx Introduction. 

"I am convinced that if the parent or 
teacher would just take the lad aside at a very 
early age, previous to contamination, and 
affectionately and simply explain to him its 
results, not one in one thousand would ever 
form the habit. Youth and young men would 
not then, could not, give up with passions 
morbidly excited and almost irresistible, and 
thus prostitution would receive a death-blow." 



€tt\\tint$. 



Kntrotructiou. 

Evils Resulting from Sexual Abuse— Physiological Marks— Pathological Indica- 
tions — Suspicious Symptoms — Sexual Abuse in the Married Relation, Attrib- 
utable to mere Habit — Premature Decay — Important Advice — Prevalence of 
Masturbation — Children Addicted to the Secret Yice — Premature Development 
of Sexuality — Its Effect on Body and Mind— Impositions of Quacks — Self-pol- 
lution, a Misfortune rather than Yice — The Rising Generation must be Instruct- 
ed — The True Method of Removing the Evil — Instructive Communications., iii 

^j&apter ©tie. 

EXCESSIVE SEXUAL EXCITEMENT. 
General Causes— Improper Nursing— Dosing — Drugging — Their Effects in Infan- 
cy Illustrated — Animal Food specially conducive to Morbid Amativeness — 
Flesh — Fish — Fowl — Mixed Dishes — Alimentary Abominations — Mothers at 
Fault— Medical Men in Error — Salted Meats especially Obnoxious — Ruinous 
Advice of Physicians — Concentrated Food — Error in regard to Fish as com- 
pared with Butcher's Meat — Salt Injurious — Erroneous Opinions of the Nutri- 
tive Yalue of Flesh — Constipation — Hardened Foeces — Piles — Hemorrhoidal 
Tumors — Affects G-irls more than Boys — Improper Drinks— Obstructed Skin — 
Improper Clothing — Sedentary Habits — Mental Culture, how Abused — Self- 
abuse in Schools — Testimony of S. Graham — of E. M. P. Wells — Obscene 
Books — Lewd Conversation — Gross Eating and Vulgar Thinking Naturally 
Associated — Testimony of Dr. Paley 23 

<&f)K$t2X 2Ttoo. 

GENERAL CONSEQUENCES. 
Pathological Phenomena — Vital Exhaustion, usually mistaken for Specific Dis- 
eases — Symptoms as described by Graham — Symptoms mentioned by Dr. Hill — 
External Indications described by O. S. Fowler — Signs of Self-abuse by the 
same Author — Signs of Excessive Indulgence in Married Life — Cases Illus- 
trative — Symptoms of Masturbation described by Deslandes — Ordinary Course 
of Symptoms 49 



xxii Contents. 



Chapter 2Tf)ree. 

SEMINAL EMISSIONS. 

Spermatorrhoea— Source of Constitutional Injury— Effects of Loss of Semen.-— Se- 
cretion of Seminal Fluid— Remarks of Christian 'flitter, M.D.— Prevalent Errors 
— Frequency of Involuntary Emissions— Morbid Sexuality transmissible 71 

<£|)apter jFour. 

GENERAL TREATMENT. 

Moral and Mental Management — Bodily Exercises — A Desideratum — Diet — 
Drink— Sleep— Bathing— Wet-Sheet Packing— Half-Pack— Half-Bath— Hip, or 
Sitz-Bath— Foot-Bath— Rubbing Wet-Sheet— Pail-Douche— Stream-Douche— 
Towel or Sponge-Bath— The Wet-Girdle— The Chest-Wrapper— The Sweat- 
ing-Pack—The Plunge-Bath— The Shower-Bath— Fomentations— Injections 
— General Bathing Rules — Mechanical Means 81 

Chapter $ibc. 

PARTICULAR CONSEQUENCES. 
General Debility— Weakness of the Joints— Neuralgia— Spinal Irritation— Early 
Distortions or Curvatures — Paralysis of the Lower Extremities — Hypochon- 
dria, or Mental Despondency — Fickleness of Temper — Irresolution, etc. — In- 
sanity — Early Superannuation — Epilepsy — Apoplexy — Tetanus and Locked- 
Jaw — Chorea, or St. Titus's Dance — Hysteria — Spitting of Blood — Disordered 
Vision — Impaired Hearing — Sleeplessness — Pimples of the Face — Inflamma- 
tion of the Eyes — Chronic Diarrhea — Colorless Stools — Priapism — Satyriasis 
and Nymphomania — Loss of Sexual Appetite — Impotence — Permanent Mor- 
bid Sensibility — Shriveling or Diminution of the Genitals — Barrenness — Abor- 
tion — Leucorrhcea — Menorrhagia — Prolapsus Uteri — Gleet — Eruptions about 
the Genitals — Prolapse of the Testicles — Swelling of the Testicle — Enlargement 
of the Spermatic Cord — Irritation of the Urethra — Scalding Urination — Can- 
cer of the Uterus— Tabes Dorsalis 101 




0iiu-Cratmntt 



SEXUAL ABUSES. 



CijaptEt (ID lit 

EXCESSIVE SEXUAL EXCITEMENT. 

General Causes. — It were easy to say, in general 
terms, that wrong educational habits — bad " bring- 
ing up" — is the common cause of the early prurien- 
cy of the genital function so prevalent in the world ; 
but the mere announcement of the fact would serve 
no useful purpose. People are not all agreed, and 
medical men differ widely, as to what are good and 
what are bad educational habits. Hence the neces- 
sity for dealing in reasons and specifications. 

It may be asserted, in general terms again, that 
all methods of bodily or mental culture which give 



24 Sexual Abuses. 

an early preponderance to the lower range of the 
animal propensities, conduce directly to the prema- 
ture development, and hence liability to abuse, of 
the sexual passion. And on this principle we are 
obliged to arraign no inconsiderable part of the or- 
dinary system in which children and youth are doc- 
tored, fed, clothed, exercised, and schooled, as phys- 
iologically wrong. And if we trace the series of 
errors back to their starting-point, we shall not stop 
in many, nor in a majority of cases, until we reach 
the infant in its cradle. 

Improper Nursing. — Let us try to understand 
how the slopping and drugging, by the nurse and 
the doctor, even in the first days of infancy, may 
rank among the prominent causes of sexual deprav- 
ity in after-life. The bowels and kidneys are excre- 
tory organs, designed to expel from the body waste 
and effete solid matters, and saline and earthy par- 
ticles held in solution. The presence of these 
excrementitious matters excites, in the natural and 
proper manner, the expulsive action of the bowels 
and bladder. But doctors generally, and nurses 
frequently, making Dame Nature every thing in 



Improper Nursing. 25 

theory, but nothing in pratice, act as though these 
functions were forever in need of their meddlesome 
assistance ; so that hardly an infant, save those few 
60 fortunate as to be born under hydropathic aus- 
pices, escapes dosing with herb teas, hot slops, 
warm infusions, sweetened liquors, and drugging 
with still more injurious agents, in the shape of opi- 
ate cordials, castor-oil mixtures, antimonial syrups, 
calomel pow T ders, pink and senna decoctions, etc. 

Now all this may seem like a small matter to the 
attending physician or presiding nurse, but none 
of these things are trifles in the mind of the intelli- 
gent physiologist. He can perceive, even here, the 
germs of disease and disorganization, and he can 
trace their effects onward to really disastrous con- 
sequences in the future. 

The bow els and kidneys, whose natural irritability 
when normally excited is sufficient for all healthful 
purposes, are by these extraneous drug-slops preter- 
naturally irritated and debilitated, and hence over- 
acted, weakened, and exhausted. Frequent repeti- 
tions of the same or similar causes of irritation cre- 
ate a habit of preternatural irritability, and a con- 
dition of debility and correspondingly increased 

2 



26 Sexual Abuses. 

susceptibility to impressions of all kinds. The 
nervous energies of the whole system are thus dis- 
proportionately directed to the point of irritation, and 
are there wasted to a greater or less extent, in a war- 
fare against the causes of irritation, which are there 
expending their force. Of course, the other excreto- 
ry organs, the skin in particular, can not have their 
due supply of nervous energy, and their functional 
power collapses, becomes torpid, so that the weak- 
ened bowels and kidneys, while disabled from well 
performing their own proper functions, are urged to 
do vicarious duty for the skin and other organs. 

The genital apparatus being in immediate prox- 
imity to this unnatural excitement, must partake 
of the general irritation, and hence a morbid sus- 
ceptibility becomes eventually established in them ; 
and when such an excitable or preternaturally sus- 
ceptible condition of the parts becomes a habit, 
who can say that it will not continue, unless over- 
come by counteracting physiological discipline, a 
leading habit of the organism, until the superadded 
excitement incidental to the period of puberty 
causes it to break out in violent and destructive 
self-abuse ? 






Animal Food. 27 

The principle I am aiming to develop is com- 
pletely illustrated in a very familiar but very sig- 
nificant fact. Boy-babies, in their cradles, after 
having taken cathartic medicine, and after having 
drank freely of warm sweetened w T ater, or of medi- 
cated slop of any kind, if careful attention is not 
paid to causing them to urinate frequently, are often 
affected with priapism, or erection of the penis, a 
condition indicative of extreme irritation. With 
girl-babies the effect of these things is evidently 
equally injurious, though not in the same way 
apparent. It requires but a moderate degree of 
intelligence to understand that the frequent repeti- 
tion of the same or similar irritants will ultimately 
induce a permanent morbid sensibility of the organs 
thus affected. 

Animal Food. — But the young child is destined, 
under the ordinary circumstances of birth or early 
education, to experience still worse influences, as it 
emerges from the cradle, and begins to run about. 
It is the unanimous opinion of all writers on this 
subject, that the early employment of animal food — ■ 
flesh, fish, and fowl — is not only highly pernicious 



28 Sexual Abuses. 

to the moral and intellectual development of the 
child, but peculiarly injurious in giving undue 
ascendency to the lowest propensities ; yet we find 
the great mass of civilized society, led on, too, by 
their medical advisers, stuffing and gorging their 
little ones on the foulest kinds of animal matter, 
which, in an alimentary sense, deserve no other 
name than carrion. Even before taken from the 
breast they are not unfrequently forced to swallow, 
against the instinctive loathings of their yet but 
partially depraved appetences, meat, broths, fish, 
soups, pork-gravies, shell-fish stews, and taught to 
suck fat bacon rinds, salted fish-skins, boiled tripe, 
and other alimentary abominations. Calculating 
from such a beginning it need not be surprising that 
a year or two later should find these dietetically- 
abused children perfect epicures in the choice of 
strong meat dishes, oyster-stews, clam-fritters, mince 
pies, fried sausages, and a variety of other edibles 
in which the strong, rank odor of the animal pre- 
vails. 

Many children, under such mismanagement, be- 
come so fond of animal food, that, when left to their 
own depraved appetites, they will make almost the 



Animal Food. 29 

entire meal of flesh-meat ; and all persons who ob- 
serve closely the "manners and morals" of such 
children, will find them, generally, gloomy, morose, 
peevish, irritable, or pugnacious, just after eating, 
except when they gormandize to the extent of pro- 
ducing blank stupidity. This really abnormal con- 
dition will usually manifest itself in the mental and 
moral deportment, as well as in the disturbance of 
the bodily functions, during a considerable and 
often the whole time in which the digestive organs 
are laboring to relieve themselves of their oppress- 
ive and unnatural burden. 

The mothers are grievously at fault ; or, rather, 
their education is greatly to blame. Being pro- 
foundly ignorant of the physiological properties of 
food, and its relations to the human body, and in 
most particulars misled by the fashions of society, 
and mistaught by the medical profession, they are 
continually depraving the appetites of their infants 
and young children, and tempting and stuffing them 
with various animal dishes, until they are absolutely 
forced to love and desire that which they by nature 
instinctively loathe and abhor. 

Medical men differ very much as to the period 



30 Sexual Abuses. 

of life at which children should be allowed the free 
use of flesh. I think it is not difficult to indicate 
an infallible rule — the later the better. But those 
parents who do not or can not understand this sub- 
ject, and who will commence feeding their infants 
on animal food, and who will also persist in its em- 
ployment during childhood and adolescence, should 
know that, in choosing the hinds of animal food, 
there is a wide field for discrimination — a great 
choice of evils. Some kinds are much worse than 
others, and all of the worst or most injurious kinds 
are bad in exact inverse ratio to the age of the 
child. Here, again, we can readily lay down the 
invariable rule of health. The plainest, least fatty, 
and freshest pieces of flesh-meat, are always com- 
paratively the best ; and the best qualities of ani- 
mal food are evidently those derived directly from 
the herbivorous animals — deteriorating in almost 
the exact degree that the animal's dietetic habits 
depart from this standard. 

Salted Meats. — A very great error pervades the 
public mind with regard to the use of salted meats — 
beef , pork, ham, codfish, mackerel, herring, etc. — and 



Salted Meats. 31 

this delusion, like most other delusions affecting 
the subject of eating and drinking, and the health 
of the community, seems to possess as completely 
the minds of medical men as of non-professional per- 
sons. Salted meats are usually regarded as pecu- 
liarly healthful, as compared with fresh meats, 
whereas, in truth, they are peculiarly pernicious ; 
and their deteriorating influence on young, rapidly- 
developing children, can be regarded no better than 
absolutely poisonous. And the rule just mentioned 
as applicable to the use of all flesh-food by young 
children, is emphatically applicable in relation to 
salted flesh. It is injurious precisely in proportion 
to the infancy of the child. 

It is another common mistake, in which medical 
men are as deeply involved as non-medical, that 
salted meat is merely the animal nutriment pre- 
served in salt ; that is to say, flesh with the addition 
of salt. It is something very different. It is, in 
reality, a third substance — a chemical compound, 
possessing properties quite unlike salt and flesh — 
either or both. This fact is evinced by all of its 
effects on the vital tissues. Let a person eat five 
ounces of salted beef or salted codfish, in which 



32 Sexual Abuses. 

there is just half an ounce of salt, and he will ex- 
perience five times the amount of the " fever of 
digestion," and feel many times the degree of thirst 
that would result frem eating an equal quantity of 
fresh beef or codfish, to which half an ounce of salt 
had been added in the process of cooking. 

All salted or pickled "fish, flesh, or fowl," or 
shell-fish, is intensely irritating to the animal mem- 
branes, highly inflaming to the whole mass of 
blood, and extremely putrescent to all the secre- 
tions. Why it is so is easily explainable on both 
chemical and physiological principles, as I have 
more fully shown in another work (Hydropathic 
Encyclopedia). 

During the past summer bowel complaints, the 
dysentery in particular, have prevailed extensively 
and fatally in many towns in New England, where 
all the means and materials of health exist in abun- 
dance. As usual, too, the Allopathic medical jour- 
nals, in allusion to the prevalence of these diseases, 
have teemed with wondrously wise sayings on the 
subject, and, as is their custom, have recommended 
almost every thing in the world, except the things 
which would be useful. One of the latest of their 



Salted Meats. 33 

writers of the school recommends, or re-recom- 
mends — for a hundred others have done the same 
before — as a preventive of dysentery and kindred 
ailments, " a moderate use of salted meats, or salted 
fish" — the very articles which are peculiarly liable 
to produce the diseases. This unfortunate and 
ruinous error not only runs through nearly all the 
"old school" medical writings of the day, but per- 
vades their standard books, and influences the pub- 
lic mind to a great and greatly destructive extent. 

But, as if to add " insult to injury," in the phy- 
siological sense, salted meats are almost always 
used in connection with superfine flour. Some 
strange perversity of both instinct and reason seems 
to have rendered coarse flour, or wheat-meal, as 
generally disliked as though its branny portion was 
a rank poison ; and hence we find, especially in the 
summer season, that salted codfish and fine biscuits 
are the leading articles of diet throughout a large 
portion of our country — a combination which 
makes one of the most putrescent, irritating, and 
inflaming aliments known. 

Many persons, too, feast themselves and feed 
their children freely on fish-flesh, when they will 

2* 



34 Sexual Abuses. 

not themselves eat, nor give their children butcher's 
meat. I know not from what source the hallucina- 
tion which influences such a choice is derived, but 
such persons ought to examinate a matter of so 
much importance to themselves and to the ris- 
ing generation, with a strict regard to scientific 
facts, physiological principles, and human expe- 
rience. Should they do so, they will find that fish 
diet, instead of being, like the old woman's clam, 
"an excellent vegetable," is still further removed, 
in the alimentary sense, from a vegetable nature, 
than is the flesh of herbivorous or graminivorous 
animals. 

The fact that salt, in contact with animal mem- 
brane, abstracts from it a portion of its water of 
combination, leaving its structure so far dry, rigid, 
and inelastic, and, in fact, to some extent disorgan- 
ized, is proof positive of its incompatibility. 

There is yet another common error in relation to 
salted meats, which is, that they are highly nutri- 
tious. Quite the contrary is the fact. Those per- 
sons who use salted flesh-meats so freely, would be 
almost as well sustained, so far as the mere amount 
of nutriment is concerned, if they would eat the 



Constipation. 35 

same quantity and variety of farinacea, fruits and 
vegetables, without the flesh. 

The particular manner in which salted flesh-meat 
conduces to premature, perverted, or preternatural 
sexuality, is by irritating the digestive viscera and 
whole alimentary canal primarily, and through them 
sympathetically exciting the genital organs ; and by 
loading the circulating fluids with a greater amount 
of saline and eftete matters to be excreted by the 
urinary passages. So far, also, as it tends to induce 
constipation, it adds directly to the general total of 
causes which inordinately irritate and inflame the 
sexual apparatus. 

Constipation. — There is another very common 
and very general source of precocious sexual devel- 
opment and inordinate excitement, as well as a 
common cause of disease in the sexual organs, and 
premature decline in their functional pow r ers ; and 
I dwell on it more particularly, for the reason that 
it is scarcely hinted at in any medical work with 
which I am acquainted. I mean fine or concen- 
trated food, and, indeed, all kinds of food which 
tend in the least to produce constipation of the 



36 Sexual Abuses. 

bowels. Costiveness may be said to be the general 
condition of the people, old and young, in civilized 
society ; those who are blessed with a free and 
healthful action being the exceptions to the rule. 
Hardened foeces in the rectum or bowel, and piles 
or hemorrhoidal tumors, which are the common 
consequences of constipation, by the incessant ir- 
ritation and perpetual inflammatory excitement 
which they occasion in the immediate vicinity of 
the sexual organs, are powerfully provocative of a 
feverish yet exhausting activity. The very act of 
dejecting the feculent matter, when hard, dry, 
scybalous, and only to be expelled by dint of pain- 
ful effort and severe straining, produces great con- 
gestion in all the blood-vessels of the genital parts. 
They become turgid, over-distended, highly suscep- 
tible, and in a physiological condition, very nearly 
resembling that preceding the sexual crisis when 
legitimately provoked. 

Very little reflection is necessary to convince any 
one how readily this condition, when excited daily 
for months and years, may prematurely develop 
the sexual appetite, and aggravate, to a degree well- 
nigh resistless, the impulse to unlawful indulgence, 



Improper Drinks. 37 

or self-abuse. I have had occasion to advise pro- 
fessionally, many otherwise promising young lads, 
whose masturbating practice was traceable to the 
habit of straining at stool, more than to all other 
causes combined ; and in some cases, as far as I 
could ascertain, it was the only exciting cause — con- 
stipation and its attendant circumstances constitut- 
ing the predisposition. 

This evil — constipation — it should be noticed, 
affects girls generally much more than boys, for the 
reason that the habits of the former are more in-door 
and sedentary ; hence it is not surprising that the 
way of self-abuse is sometimes learned by them, 
with the aid of no other teacher than the inordinate 
solicitation of their own morbid sensations ; and the 
temporary relief experienced, or pleasure enjoyed, 
causes a repetition of the act, until a habit is formed 
which rapidly lowers the whole moral tone of the 
mind, deranges the intellect, and wears away the 
vitality of the whole organic constitution. 

Improper Drinks. — All forms of hot, relaxing, 
or stimulating drinks, especially all kinds of " spirit- 
uous or malt liquors, wine, or cider," and all other 



38 Sexual Abuses. 

sorts of alcoholic beverages, "whether enumerated 
or not," by weakening the abdominal organs, and 
irritating the kidneys, tend to induce a permanent 
debility, and keep up perpetually a degree of pre- 
ternatural susceptibility in the genital organs. Cof- 
fee, though less irritating and inflaming to the gen- 
eral nervous system than alcoholic drinks, seems to 
be even more exciting and debilitating to the sexual 
apparatus ; while tea is very far ixoni being innocu- 
ous. 

Obstructed Skin*. — There is yet another very 
great error in the ordinary management of young 
persons, which is, inattention to bathing. A foul, 
obstructed skin, whose seven millions of pores are 
choked up continually with effete, perspirable mat- 
ter, adds to the causes of irritation which are per- 
petually expending their force upon the urinary 
and genital organs, by throwing the putrescent 
matters of the body disproportionately upon the 
kidneys. In an artificial state of society, and with 
the numerous enervating circumstances which 
abound in civilized life, nothing less than a daily 
cool or cold bathing or washing of the entire sur- 



Sedentary Habits. 39 

face can keep it in a vigorous and healthy condi- 
tion, and enable it to completely perform its own 
appr< priate part of the work of eliminating all 
gross and waste particles from the body. 

Im> ropek Clothing. — A few words under this 
head may not be amiss. All tight, burdensome, 
and over-heating clothing is exceedingly objection- 
able. The under-garments of girls, and the panta- 
loons of boys are frequently so thick, coarse, and 
heavy in material, and so bungling and irritating in 
fit, or rather misfit, as to prove sources of no incon- 
siderable degree of weakness and relaxation of the 
abdominal and pelvic viscera, a condition which 
contributes to render the genital organs preternatu- 
rally sensitive or morbidly prurient. 

Sedentary Haeits. — Among the more wealthy 
classes, and occasionally among the poorer, we 
find sedentary habits a frequent source of sexual 
pruriency. Idleness is as incompatible with bodily 
as with mental or moral health. If the constantly 
accumulating energy of the nervous and muscular 
systems is not expended in regular and appropriate 



40 Sexual Abuses. 

exercise or labor, it will seek an outlet in some less 
natural way, and very frequently in fitful and vio- 
lent commotions of the sensitive and excitable sex- 
ual organs. A precocious development of brain is 
extremely liable, in sedentary persons, at or near 
the period of puberty, to produce, as it were, by a 
kind of metastasis, or revulsion, intense and dan- 
gerous excitement ; for, as the time approaches for 
the full development of the reproductive function, 
a very little inordinate irritation, superadded to its 
naturally susceptible condition, may lead to disas- 
trous results. And all plans, indeed, which force 
the mind to educational exercises, while the body 
is left inactive, and comparatively torpid, have the 
same tendency. 

Mental Culture. — It is most true — and a most 
important practical point it is, too, in the physio- 
logical training of young persons — that proper men- 
tal culture — a correct course of study — and even 
active and persevering application of the mental 
powers to the acquisition of useful knowledge, is 
among the best and most efficient means for repress- 
ing the force of all causes of undue sexual excite- 



S k l f -Abuse jn Schools. 41 

nient, and of enabling the individual to restrain 
either its natural or morbid importunity within 
due bounds ; yet, as already intimated, a method 
of education which merely stimulates the mind to 
exertion, without regulating the direction of its ef- 
forts, nor regarding the physiological necessities of 
the bodily constitution, often reacts with terrible 
and fatal force on the morbid irritability of the sex- 
ual organs. 

Self- Abuse in Schools.— It would astonish and 
appal the fathers and mothers of many beloved and 
promising sons and daughters, who are pursuing 
the usual routine of an educational course at our 
colleges, academies, and boarding-schools, to be 
made fully acquainted with the awful ravages made 
by " the secret vice" there — in the very places 
usually regarded as peculiarly exempt from profli- 
gaey or sensuous excesses of all kinds. 

In relation to the cause of the debasing habit of 
self-pollution, Sylvester Graham has written — I fear 
with no more force than truth : 

"But the most fruitful sources of instruction in 
this vice, are our public schools — and especially 



42 Sexual Abuses. 

boarding-schools and colleges. The extent to which 
this evil prevails, and of the mischief resulting from 
it, in most of these institutions, is beyond credi- 
bility; and none but those who have thoroughly 
investigated this subject can have any just appre- 
hensions of the difficulties in preventing it. The 
utmost care, and vigilance, and precautionary 
measures, have sometimes failed to keep it out of 
public institutions for the instruction of youth. 

" It is enough to make a parent's heart recoil with 
horror, when he contemplates the danger to which 
his child is exposed, on becoming a member of a 
public school ! And they are greatly deceived who 
suppose that a majority of the boys who enter 
these institutions escape the contamination ! Nay, 
indeed, the parent who will suffer his son, under 
any circumstances of life, to pass his twelfth year, 
without keeping a most vigilant eye upon him, with 
regard to this pernicious vice, and seizing the first 
indications of this depravity to give him proper in- 
structions concerning it, is very guilty of a danger- 
ous neglect of parental duty. 

" The common notion that boys are generally ig- 
norant in relation to this matter, and that we ought 



Self- Abuse in Schools. 43 

not to remove that ignorance, is wholly incorrect. 
I am confident that I speak within bounds, when I 
say that seven out of every ten boys in our country, 
at the age of twelve, have at least heard of this 
pernicious practice ; and I say, again, the extent to 
which it prevails in our public schools and colleges 
is shocking beyond measure ! I have known boys 
to leave some of these institutions at the age of 
twelve and thirteen, almost entirely ruined in health 
and constitution by it, and they have assured me 
that, to their certain knowledge, almost every boy 
in the school practiced the filthy vice ; and many 
of them went to the still more loathsome and crim- 
inal extent of an unnatural commerce with each 
other !" 

In corroboration of the above testimony, Rev. E. 
M. P. Wells, a very celebrated and successful 
teacher of Boston, wrote, in 1837 : 

"From an intimate acquaintance with about 
seven hundred boys for the past nine years ; from 
the recollections of a pretty extensive acquaintance 
in boyhood ; and from information derived from 
gentlemen of the highest distinction and most emi- 
nent success in the great subject — not of learning 



44 Sexual Abuses. 

only, but of education — in my own country, 
and from several nations of Europe, I am fully 
convinced that the practice of the self-gratifica- 
tion of the sexual desires is more common than 
any other indulgence which we consider at all 
wrong. There are fewer exceptions to the uni- 
versality of the practice than there are to most 
general rules. I think, also, the practice is full 
as common, more excessive, and more injurious, 
in those who do not labor, and who live easily 
and luxuriantly, than in those of opposite hab- 
its of life. This, I suppose, is caused by their 
food being too stimulating for their exercise. Be- 
sides, the hardy mode of living and labor of the 
opposite classes of society keeps their desires in a 
more natural and healthful condition. Thus the 
easy and luxuriant are excited to an excess to 
which their less hardy constitutions makes them 
the more easy prey. Many of our delicate consti- 
tutions, consumptions, and our low and melancholy 
spirits, are to be attributed to this excess. The 
laborious and the poor have less of the desire, and 
are better able to bear the effects of its gratifi- 
cation." 



Obscene Books, etc. 45 

Obscene Books and Conversation. — There re- 
mains to be mentioned two other prominent sources 
of youthful depravity and contamination — lewd 
conversation and lascivious books. Obscene novels 
and fictitious writings, specially addressed to the 
amative propensity, full of lewd images, impure 
conceptions, and lust-engendering narratives, and 
only interesting or amusing on such accounts, are 
abundant in our literary markets. And, I am 
pained to be obliged to add, some of our most " re- 
spectable" and wealthy publishing houses do their 
full share in scattering broadcast over the land vile 
and corrupting "light literature," in the shape of 
trashy romances, exciting seduction stories, narra- 
tives of dissolute characters, and fictitious histories 
of imaginary debauchees, whose deeds of sensuality 
and depravity are detailed with all the minuteness 
and circumstantiality that can arrest the attention 
and inflame the passion of the youthful and sus- 
ceptible mind. And this kind of mental food, like 
improper aliment for the stomach, is pernicious in 
proportion to the youthfulness of the person who 
partakes of and appropriates it. 

Young persons ought especially to be confined 



4:6 Sexual Abuses. 

to books whose subjects are the practical arts and 
sciences, histories of nations, biographies of good 
and virtuous persons, etc., and such fictions only as 
are directed to the intellect and higher sentiments ; 
leaving the details of heroes and heroines, whose 
greatest achievements were in the line of gluttony, 
and revelry, and profligacy, and debauchery, to the 
period of life when the judgment is mature, and 
when imagination and passion have come under 
the dominion of intellect, if, indeed, such works 
must be read at all. 

Still worse in its depraving influences on the 
youthful mind, because more prevalent, is the gen- 
eral habit of low, vulgar, loose, and meretricious 
conversation. It is hardly possible for children, 
now-a-days, to associate freely with their seniors 
in age, without having their plastic minds filled 
with wanton and libidinous ideas and images. 
Much of the common talk with which thoughtless 
people of nearly all ages and callings amuse them- 
selves and each other, and make pastime for their 
idle hours, is based on perverted ideas and depraved 
images relating to the sexual organs, and to sexual 
commerce. With the gross and vulgar-minded this 



Obscene Books, etc. 47 

is the ever-present theme of the joke, and repartee, 
and anecdote, and song, and often, also, of fiction 
and falsehood. And too frequently do men, in the 
middle period of life, married men, and men who 
are fathers of sons and daughters, indulge, in the 
field, in the workshop, behind the counter, and even 
around the family hearth, in a style of lascivious 
hints, inuendoes, etc., relating to the sexual distinc- 
tions, in the presence of young, but not listless nor 
unobserving children ; little dreaming, and perhaps 
little thinking, or little caring, that every profane 
expression, and each vulgar allusion, is exciting a 
prurient curiosity which may ere long become the 
initiative step toward the final fall of some one or 
more of the youthful hearers. 

I believe it to be a general and an almost univer- 
sal rule in society, that its individuals are more 
vulgar and lecherous in their conversation, as they 
are more gross and gluttonous in their personal 
habits ; and the critical observer of men need not 
err greatly in choosing associates or instructors for 
his children, very much in reference to their volun- 
tary, especially their eating and drinking habits. 
While for the pure all things are pure, to the im- 



48 Sexual Abuses. 

pure-minded all things are filthy. These will apply 
or misapply any ambiguous expression or obscure 
remark to the degrading theme which is so generally 
uppermost in their own minds. 

Dr. Paley has well remarked that "habits of lib- 
ertinism incapacitate and indispose the mind for 
all intellectual, moral, and religious pleasures." 
Some great libertines do, however, manifest a re- 
spectable degree of intellectual capacity, but are 
peculiarly and strikingly deficient in their percep- 
tions of the moral bearing of any question ; while 
they become so thoroughly selfish as to seem inca- 
pable of acting upon or even entertaining any 
problem of social weal or general philanthropy. 
No human beings are more besotted and miserly, 
sordid and mercenary, in all the relations of life, 
than the slaves of lascivious thoughts and practices, 
and most of their ways, manners, habits, pursuits, 
and resolves, are remarkably wayward, erratic, 
fickle, and fantastic. 



Cjjaptn Ctnn. 



GENERAL CONSEQUENCES. 

Pathological Phenomena. — The effects of either 
self-pollution or excessive sexual indulgence, ap- 
pear in as many forms and phases as there are indi- 
vidual subjects; nevertheless, there are, in the 
great majority of cases, symptoms enough in com- 
mon to constitute a general family resemblance in 
morbid manifestations. All evince cleccr and unmis- 
takable evidences of nervous or vital exhaustion. 
And if this condition is aggravated to a fatal result, 
the victim of self-murder is commonly supposed to 
die of dyspepsia, consumption, debility, decline, 
spinal disease, etc., etc., because, as the vital pow- 
ers decay, and death approaches, the leading phe- 
nomena simulate, more or less closely, the symp- 
toms of some of the maladies usually designated 
as above. 

The various pathological results of this waste of 
3 



50 Sexual Abuses. 



vitality have been noticed more or less by physi- 
cians, physiologists, and philosophers, in all ages 
of the world, since medicine became a profession. 
And within the last quarter of a century they have 
been described and explained by many eminent 
educational and reformatory writers, with remark- 
able exactness and accuracy. 

"It would seem," says Graham, in his Lectures 
to Young Men, " as if God had written an instinc- 
tive law of remonstrance, in the innate moral sense, 
against this filthy vice ; for however ignorant the 
boy may be of the moral character of the act, or 
of the physical and mental evils which result from 
it, though he may never have been told that it is 
wrong, yet every one who is guilty of it feels an 
instinctive shame, and deep self-loathing, even in 
his secret solitude, after the unclean deed is done ! 
And that youth has made no small progress in the 
depravity of his moral feelings, who has so silenced 
the dictates of natural modesty, that he can, with- 
out the blush of shame, pollute himself in the pres- 
ence of another, even his most intimate companion. 
Hence all who give themselves up to the excesses 
of this debasing indulgence, carry about with them, 



Pathological Phenomena. 51 

continually, a consciousness of their defilement, and 
cherish a secret suspicion that others look upon 
them as debased beings. They can not meet the 
look of others, and especially of the female sex, 
with the modest boldness of conscious innocence 
and purity ; but their eyes fall, suddenly abashed, 
and the glow of mingled shame and confusion comes 
upon their cheeks, when they meet the glance of 
those with whom they are conversing, or in whose 
company they are. They feel none of that manly 
confidence and gallant spirit, and chaste delight, in 
the presence of virtuous females, which stimulate 
young men to pursue the course of ennobling re- 
finement, and mature them for the social relations 
and enjoyments of life; and hence, they are often 
inclined either to shun the society of females en- 
tirely, or to seek such as is by no means calculated 
to elevate their views, nor improve their taste nor 
morals ; and if, by the kind offices of friends, they 
are put forward into good society, they are con- 
tinually oppressed with a shrinking embarrassment, 
which makes them feel as if they were out of their 
own element, and look forward to the time of retire- 
ment as the time of their release from an unpleas- 



52 Sexual Abuses. 

ant situation. A want of self-respect disqualifies 
them for the easy and elegant courtesies which 
render young men interesting to the other sex; 
and often prevents their forming those honorable 
relations in life so desirable to every virtuous heart, 
and frequently dooms them either to a gloomy celi- 
bacy, or an early grave. 

"This shamefacedness, or unhappy quailing of 
the countenance, on meeting the look of others, 
often follows them through life, in some instances, 
even after they have entirely abandoned the habit, 
and become married men, and respectable members 
of society." 

Dr. Hill, in his Eclectic Surgery, has well de- 
scribed the symptoms of excessive masturbation as 
they are presented in a great majority of cases. 

" In some cases, the only complaint the patient 
will make, on consulting you, is, that he is suffer- 
ing under a kind of continued fever. He will prob- 
ably present a hot, dry skin, with something of a 
hectic appearance. Though all the ordinary means 
of arresting such symptoms have been tried, he is 
none the better. 

" Your patient will present no evidence of organic 



Pathological Phenomena. 53 

disease. His lungs are sound, and his liver appears 
to perform its office tolerably well. On strict in- 
quiry, however, you will find that he is generally 
inclined to be costive, and has probably been in the 
habit of taking some kinds of aperient pills. Dys- 
peptic symptoms, also, are not uncommon, in con- 
nection with excessive languor and debility. The 
languid or tired feeling is especially manifest, with 
trembling in the limbs perhaps, on first rising from 
the bed in the morning. 

"The sleep seems to be irregular and unrefresh- 
ing — restlessness during the early part of the night, 
and in the advanced stages of the disease, profuse 
sweats before morning. There is also frequent 
starting in the sleep, * from disturbing dreams. 
The characteristic feature is, that your patient almost 
always dreams of sexual intercourse. This is one 
of the earliest, as well as most constant symptoms. 
When it occurs most frequently, it is apt to be ac- 
companied with painful priapism. A gleety dis- 
charge from the urethra may also be frequently dis- 
covered, especially if the patient examine when at 

* This starting in sleep, I think, is peculiar to those affected with 
costiveness, whether they have seminal emissions or not. 



54: Sexual Abuses. 

stool, or after urinating. This may be more fre- 
quent with those who have had gonorrhoea, but it 
is ~by no means confined to such. 

" Tour patient may confess to being a very nerv- 
ous subject. He has not only frequent attacks of 
nervous headache^ but occasional sensations of gid- 
diness, or vertigo* ringing in the ears, etc., with 
perhaps a fixed, dull pain in the hack of the head, 
w r here a preternatural heat may almost always be 
discovered. Connected with this will be a stiffness 
in the muscles of the neck, and darting pains 
through the forehead. Extensive spinal irritation 
is a frequent accompaniment. Some patients will 
speak of a peculiar aura, like water running over 
the body, or a sensation resembling the crawling of 
insects under the skin, especially down the outside 
of the thighs. Weak eyes (as well as weak back) 
are among the common symptoms. But, as might 
be expected from the direct implication of the 
nervous system, the moral and mental symptoms 
are perhaps more to be relied on than any very 
obvious bodily peculiarities. The disease is well 

* Giddiness, vertigo, and headache, are common effects of cos- 
tiveness, however this may be induced. 



Pathological Phenomena. 55 



known to be one of the most frequent causes of in- 
sanity, and one of its earliest symptoms is inca- 
pacity for concentrated attention. If the sufferer 
attempts to pursue any mathematical study, he will 
fail. He manifests, moreover, an excessive want 
of confidence in his own abilities, even where they 
do not seem to fail him. He has very often ' no 
mind of his own.' He is much afflicted with awful 
forebodings, though he can not tell of what. Some 
indescribable evil is always about to befall him. In 
this and several other particulars, the disease very 
closely resembles delirium tremens. It may be 
confounded with hypochondria. 

" One very frequent, and perhaps early symptom 
(especially in young females) is solitariness — a dis- 
position to seclude themselves from society. Al- 
though they may be tolerably cheerful when in 
company, they choose rather to be alone. 

"The countenance has often a gloomy and worn- 
down expression. The patient's friends frequently 
notice a great change. Large livid spots under the 
eyes is a common feature. Sudden flashes of heat 
may be noticed passing over the patient's face. He 
is liable also to palpitations. The pulse is very va- 



56 Sexual Abuses. 

riable, generally too slow. Extreme emaciation, 
without any other assignable cause for it, may be 
set down as another very common symptom. If 
the evil has gone on for several years, there will be 
a general unhealthy appearance, of a character so 
marked, as to enable an experienced observer at 
once to detect the cause. In fact, I recognize such 
a case at the first glance, as readily as a banker 
does a counterfeit bill. In the case of onanists, es- 
pecially, there is a peculiar rank odor emitted from 
the body, by which they may be readily distin- 
guished. One striking peculiarity of all these pa- 
tients is, that they can not look a man in the face ! 
Cowardice is constitutional with them." 
O. S. Fowler, the phrenologist, observes : 
"Now, by a law of things, whatever impairs the 
physical sexuality, thereby impairs the mental sex- 
uality ; and as over-indulgence does this, therefore, 
whoever gives way to this passion proportionally 
impairs his manhood, or else effaces the charms of 
the feminine. The man lays down his nobleness, 
dignity, honor, and manhood, and is no longer 
bold, resolute, determined, aspiring, dignified, but 
becomes depreciated, irresolute, undetermined, 



Signs of Self-Abuse. 57 

tamed, and conscious of his degradation. No 
longer comprehensive in planning, efficient in exe- 
cuting, correct in judgment, full of thought, strong 
in intellect, courteous in manner, noble in mien, 
and gallant to woman ; but he becomes disheart- 
ened, uncertain in his plans, and inefficient in their 
execution, and a drone to himself and society. So, 
too, the female, diseased here, loses proportionably 
the amiableness and gracefulness of her sex, her 
sweetness of voice, disposition, and manner, her 
native enthusiasm, her beauty of face and form, 
her gracefulness and elegance of carriage, her looks 
of love and interest in man, and to him, and be- 
comes merged into a mongrel, neither male nor 
female, but marred by the defects of both, without 
possessing the virtues of either. No more the wo- 
man till her female organs are restored, and her 
accompanying mental sexuality thereby re-estab- 
lished." 

Signs of Self- Abuse. — In relation to the " signs 
which come to the surface" of the self-fornicator, the 
author above quoted remarks: "The private sen- 
sualist may be further known by his pallid, blood- 

3* 



58 Sexual Abuses. 

less countenance, and hollow, sunken, and half- 
ghastly eyes, the lids of which will frequently be 
tinged with red ; while, if his indulgence has been 
carried very far, he will have black and blue semi- 
circles under his eyes, and also look as if worn out, 
almost dead for want of sleep, yet unable to get it, 
etc. He will also have a half wild, half vacant 
stare, or half lascivious, half foolish smile, especially 
when he sees a female. He will also have a cer- 
tain quickness yet indecision of manner ; will begin 
to do this thing, then stop and essay to do that, and 
then do what he first intended ; and in such utterly 
insignificant matters as putting his hat here or 
there, etc. The same incoherence will characterize 
his expressions, and the same want of promptness 
mark all he does. Little things will agitate and 
fluster him, nor will he be prompt, or resolute, or 
bold, or forcible; but timid, afraid of his own 
shadow, uncertain, waiting to see what is best, and 
always in a hurry, yet hardly knows what he is 
doing, or wants to do. Nor will he walk erect, or 
dignified, as if conscious of his manhood, and lofty 
in his aspirations, but will walk and move with a 
diminutive, cringing, sycophantic, inferior, mean, 



Signs of Self- Abuse. 59 

self-debased manner, as if depreciated and degraded 
in his own eyes ; thus telling you perpetually by 
his shamed looks and sheepish manner that he has 
been doing something low, mean, contemptible, 
and vulgar. This secret practice has impaired 
both his physical and mental manhood, and thereby 
effaced the nobleness and efficiency of the mascu- 
line, and deteriorated his soul, besides having ruined 
his body. 

"He will, moreover, be dull of comprehension, 
incorrect, forgetful, heedless, full of blunders of all 
sorts, crude and inappropriate in his joke 3, slow to 
take the hint, listless, inattentive, absent-minded, 
sad, melancholy, easily frightened, easily discour- 
aged, wanting in clearness and point of idea, less 
bright than formerly, and altogether depreciated in 
looks and talents compared with what he would 
have been, if he had never contracted this soul and 
body ruining practice." 

Excessive sexual indulgence in the marriage bed 
not only destroys the health, temper, and disposition 
of the wife, rendering her gloomy, peevish, hyster- 
ical, and querulous, but often destroys the happiness 
of the family circle entirely. The following anec- 



60 Sexual Abuses. 

dote, with many similar ones related by Bosch, is 
in point : "In traveling I accidentally made the ac- 
quaintance of a merchant, whose humor and intelli- 
gence soon made him a most agreeable companion. 
In our conversation we casually turned upon 
women, and I noticed immediately that his vivacity 
had vanished, and a dark cloud was spreading itself 
over his mind. ' Yes, woman,' he exclaimed, after 
a long pause, < who can fathom the mysteries of her 
nature?' He was silent again, and his face ex- 
pressed tb 3 working of his heart. I interrupted his 
meditatio i by asking, ' Do you really find woman 
so mysterious? 5 This brought our conversation 
fully upon the subject, and I learned, in the course 
of it, that for six years he had been acquainted with 
the daughter of a merchant, and that a union could 
not be effected between them, the parents of the 
lady being opposed to it. She pledged him her 
fidelity to remain single until all obstacles were re- 
moved, affirming that she would marry none but 
him ; and, finally, their mutual fidelity triumphed 
over every difficulty, and they were married. 
Shortly after their marriage the lady's disposition 
changed entirely, and he soon became convinced 



Signs of Self-Abuse. 61 

that her former kindness was but assumed in order 
to deceive him. The scenes which daily occurred 
deeply affected him, and she robbed him of all do- 
mestic comfort, by a perverseness which, according 
to his ideas, was totally inconsistent with female 
character. 

"She presented him with a fine boy, and only 
for about two months, during and after his birth, 
did he enjoy a cessation from confusion ; and then 
the turmoil was resumed, and continued throughout 
one year and a half of unhappy married life, when 
he separated himself from her. 

"After this she resided in a small town, at about 
fifty miles distance from him. His relatives re- 
proached him bitterly for having taken such a step, 
assuring him that she was respected by every one. 
He insisted that he had not acted without deep re- 
flection — that he had anticipated nothing but ruin 
in this hell of matrimonial life. ' Is it not an un- 
fathomable mystery?' he exclaimed, after having 
finished his story; 'how do you explain these 
things V I then gave him a key by which he might 
solve the difficulty, and spoke upon the subject, and 
illustrated clearly to his mind how his own lively 



62 Sexual Abuses. 

temperament, and the passion with which he desired 
to possess her, had produced the very evils of which 
he complained. He manifested a deep interest in 
my exposition of his case, and became convinced, 
that not his wife, but himself, had occasioned the 
domestic misery he had suffered. 

" c Great God!' he exclaimed, 'and these things 
not a part of man's early education ! kept ignorant 
of a subject on which his happiness so intimately 
depends, while the law commands an abuse which 
destroys families, and makes the best miserable! 
It is horrible !' 

"We separated, and after a year I received a 
letter from quite a different part of the country. 
The honest man had made good his former errors 
by repairing early to his wife's residence, and com- 
municating to her the new light he had obtained, 
and asking her forgiveness. 

" She entertained no ill-feeling toward him, 
having previously ceased to reproach him, and now 
could not comprehend what foul demon had inter- 
posed between them and interrupted their happi- 
ness ; and when he requested her to return to him, 
her only objection was to join him in the place of 



Signs of Self-Abuse. 63 

their former abode, fearing the reproaches of their 
former acquaintances. He assented to relinquish 
his business, and together they removed to a distant 
part of the country, to make for themselves a para- 
dise which till now they had not enjoyed. Since 
then, knowing the path of duty, they walk in it and 
are happy." 

Many women, on being sent away from their 
husbands, rapidly recover health ; and lose it again 
as rapidly on returning to them, as the following 
case, quoted from the last mentioned author, in- 
structively illustrates : " A Mend of mine married a 
healthy young lady of gentle and truly woman-like 
deportment. Soon after their marriage she became 
sick, and from the commencement of her pregnancy 
had a great deal to suffer. I recollect she was very 
much afflicted with vomiting, spasms, and a chronic 
headache. I was at that time a student of medi- 
cine, and had too little insight into such things to 
be at all surprised. The physician who was consult- 
ed decided it to be a natural consequence of her 
delicate situation — a condition to which her system 
was unaccustomed, and for which nature was pre- 
paring her with an extraordinary struggle. This 



64 Sexual Abuses. 

explanation was received, and the poor woman was 
punctual in swallowing the prescriptions, but with- 
out the desired effect ; at last, with great effort, she 
gave birth to a boy. My own pursuits led me away 
from that place. My friend, whose business re- 
quired him frequently to travel for six months at a 
time, always called upon me whenever he came to 
the place of my residence — sometimes coming from 
home, sometimes returning. I naturally inquired 
after the state of his health and that of his wife, and 
invariably learned that when he came from home 
she was sickly, but, on his way returning, he always 
assured me of having received intelligence that she 
was well. He finally died ; and when, a few years 
afterward, I saw her as a widow, she enjoyed perfect 
health." 

Deslandes, in relation to the external signs of 
excessive masturbation, remarks: "The counter 
nance, instead of the vermilion glow of health, is 
pale and without freshness, or of a yellowish, earthy, 
leaden, and livid tint ; the lips lose their color ; a 
bluish circle surrounds the eyes; the eyelids are 
puffed out with oedema ; the flesh is soft and flaccid ; 
the pulse is small and feeble; upon the slightest 



Signs of Self-Abuse. 65 

motion, or during sleep, the forehead, chest, and 
palms of the hands are bathed with profuse perspi- 
ration ; in some patients the hands and feet are 
oedematous ; in short, the symptoms are those of 
general atony, which is attended with a slow, 
hectic fever, denoting that the economy does not 
yield without reaction to the destructive vice." 

The dyspeptic symptoms usually noticed in per- 
sons addicted to the secret vice, are thus described 
by the above author, who, after remarking that the 
appetite is often temporarily increased at first, 
continues: " But such a state of things can not long 
continue ; numerous signs soon show that excesses 
in venery may act on the digestive tube in another 
manner than by rendering the appetite more keen 
and the digestion more easy. In fact, the appetite 
does not long resist excesses in onanism; it first 
diminishes, then disappears, and is often replaced 
by a decided disgust for every kind of food ; in some 
patients it becomes irregular, capricious ; in others 
it remains. The latter have most cause of com- 
plaint, for it continues longer than digestion is 
performed. 'My appetite remains,' writes an onan- 
ist to Lissot, 'but it is a misfortune, as eating is 



66 Sexual Abus.es. 

followed by pain in the stomach, and my food is 
rejected.' Many onanists feel pain of a similar 
character after eating. In otheis there is a sense of 
oppression, or fullness, in the epigastric region. In 
some there is a gnawing feeling resembling that 
produced by a want of food ; this symptom is very 
common in girls, who, in consequence of secret 
practices, have become affected with leucorrhoea. 
In some the face and cheeks present a redness which 
contrasts remarkably with their habitual paleness. 
Onanists are frequently affected with headache, 
vertigo, flushed face, etc. In some the slowness of 
the digestion is indicated by eructations, which 
occur long after taking food ; or the belly is tense 
and filled with wind. Food, which formerly digest- 
ed with ease, is now oppressive; and the list of 
articles of diet is shortened every day. Some 
onanists have been known in these cases to indulge 
in ardent spirits, with the vain hope of exciting their 
appetite, and regaining their strength. Repeated 
vomitings, constant pain in the belly, and a slow 
fever, are also frequent symptoms of the deep-seated 
affections of the digestive organs. In many patients 
the intestinal canal is more liable to be affected by 



Signs of Self- Abuse. 67 

venereal excesses than the stomach. Obstinate 
constipation in some, diarrhea and borborygmi in 
others, are the usual signs of the affection of this 
canal. 

" Many authors have repeated after the statements 
of Hippocrates, that individuals affected with con- 
sumption arising from venereal excesses, have no 
fever. This is an error ; they die, as we have 
already stated, with true hectic fever, which is 
caused by the state of the different organs, and 
particularly by that of the genital system. Of this, 
numerous instances might be cited. The following 
is related by Dr. Federigo, the Italian translator of 
Portal's work on consumption: 'I knew,' says he, 
1 a female who was affected for many years with 
extreme debility and entire loss of appetite ; a slow 
fever every evening had rendered her extremely 
thin ; her eyes were pale and sunken ; her skin was 
very hot ; and it was highly painful for her to stand 
erect ; a profuse discharge weakened her still more ; 
and she was in an advanced state of marasmus. 
All the active remedies, as preparations of iron, 
decoctions of cinchona, and mineral waters, were 
tried without success. She died in a most deplora- 



68 Sexual Abuses. 

ble state of consumption. I attempted, by question- 
ing her as to her mode of living, to discover the 
cause of this disease, but unsuccessfully. A month 
before her death, however, she told me with tears in 
her eyes, that she brought her debility upon herself, 
by indulging constantly and for many years in a 
secret and murderous habit!' " 

Ordinary Course of Symptoms. — One of the most 
constant symptoms is the tendency to emaciation. 
The loss of flesh is often imputed to rapid growth, 
over- work, or other causes, when it is owing wholly 
to masturbation ; and when the bodily bulk can be 
readily regained on abandoning the habit. This 
wasting of the body is usually attended with a 
craving, and often quite voracious appetite ; in some 
cases the craving is insatiable, and the patient wants 
to eat constantly. The leanness of the body is par- 
ticularly noticeable about the hips and lower part 
of the abdomen. The thighs fall away, as it were, 
and the abdomen is drawn in toward the back, ap- 
pearing quite concave externally, instead of convex, 
as in the normal state ; some persons become reduced 
to a mere skeleton, and then the morbid craving 



Okdinaky Course of Symptoms. 69 

abates, to be followed by little or no appetite for 
food, and not unfrequently a total disgust for aliment 
of all kinds. In many cases the loins, hips, thighs, 
and lower extremities exhibit a remarkable degree 
of emaciation, even before the constitution is really 
broken down; in these cases the usual flesh and 
strength are soon acquired after adopting a correct 
hygienic regimen. Often the head is bent forward 
and the trunk of the body curved as in old age. 
The patient feels indolent and stupid; his heart 
beats violently on slight exertion ; and he is easily 
put out of breath. At first the countenance is pre- 
ternaturally flushed, but soon becomes pale, dull, 
leaden, or livid, loses its freshness, and the expres- 
sion is without sprightliness ; the lips at length lose 
their natural color, a bluish semicircle surrounds 
the eyes ; the eyelids are often puffy or oedematous, 
the pulse is small and feeble, and usually frequent 
at first, though as the habit continues it becomes 
slow and languid. The flesh is soft and flabby. As 
the debility increases, the hands and feet become 
puffy, and the forehead, chest, and palms of the 
hands, sweat profusely on slight exertion. 

The bluish circle around the eyes, though common 



70 Sexual Abuses. 

to masturbators, may be produced by other causes ; 
hence all persons manifesting this symptom should 
not be charged with this vice unless other corrobor- 
ating circumstances are present. 

The rank odor which often exhales from the 
bodies of masturbators, is peculiar, and exceedingly 
disagreeable. When once distinctly recognized by 
the sense of smell it can not easily be forgotten. 

The fetid breath, too, with which many of them 
are affected, is unlike an offensive breath from 
almost any other cause. With some persons, espe- 
cially those who have been uncleanly in other 
respects, or whose dietetic habits have been gross, 
every expiration of air from the lungs is horribly 
disgusting, rendering it a most undesirable and 
sickening task to converse with them. 



Ctjaptn tfjim. 

SEMINAL EMISSIONS. 

Spermatorrhoea. — In males the common and 
most prominent result of excessive sexual excite- 
ment, or of irregular indulgences is, involuntary 
emissions^ technically called spermo?*rhcea, or more 
properly, spermatorrhoea. In the early stages, 
when the constitutional tone is not very greatly 
impaired, they are usually attended with lascivious 
dreaming, and generally a degree of pleasurable 
orgasm, which awakens the patient from sleep. 
But as the debility progresses the discharge takes 
place with little or no sleep-disturbance. In the 
early stages of the complaint, erection of the penis, 
partial or complete, precedes the emission ; but 
w^hen severe inroads have been made upon the or- 
ganic vitality, it frequently occurs almost uncon- 
sciously. 



72 Sexual Abuses. 

Some masturbators, especially those subject to 
habitual costiveness, experience a constant irrita- 
tion of the sexual parts, and pollute themselves 
upon the least exciting cause ; while others so wear 
out the susceptibility of the organs, that an emis- 
sion is impossible without great effort; but with 
either class of persons the habit of self-pollution is 
equally the ruling passion. 

Female masturbators evince something like a cor- 
responding derangement in the menstrual function. 
It is often premature in appearance, excessive in 
quantity, too frequent in its periodical recurrence, 
and alternated with leucorrhoea, and generally 
attended with occasional bloatings of the abdomen, 
violent palpitation, or fluttering of the heart, great 
weakness in the back, and not unfrequently severe 
prolapsus, or falling of the womb. 

Source of Constitutional Injury. — The injury 
resulting to the constitution is not so much from the 
mere loss of semen, or other fluid, as from the abso- 
lute waste of vital power through the inordinate 
nervous excitement. Unquestionably the loss of 
the seminal fluid is in itself a source of considerable 



Secretion of Seminal Fluid. 73 

vital exhaustion ; for all experience shows that its 
presence in the organism is essential to full and 
perfect development and vigor ; yet the preternatu- 
ral excitation of the nervous centers is the direct 
cause of a still greater waste of the fund of life. 
The excitement of venereal indulgence is more uni- 
versal and more intense than that of any other pro- 
pensity, and attended, consequently, with greater 
commotion and disturbance of all the functions of 
the animal economy. Indeed, the end contemplated 
in the institution of the sexual passion, requires for 
its proper fulfillment, that all the operations of the 
organic machinery, animal, vital, and mental, be 
for a brief period, as it were, concentrated in the 
reproductive function. Hence the waste of vitality, 
when the sexual crisis is frequently provoked, with- 
out the circumstances which render its exercise 
natural and legitimate, is immense and incalculable. 

Secretion of Seminal Fluid. — A general error 
has prevailed among young persons, that the semi- 
nal fluid, after the full development of the sexual 
apparatus, is constantly accumulating, and that, 
unless it is occasionally or periodically discharged, 

4 



74 Sexual Abuses. 



its superabundance will produce injury. The fact 
is, the semen, in its perfect state, is never secreted, 
except during the period of sexual excitement. Its 
elements may pervade the whole circulating sys- 
tem, be diffused throughout the entire organism, 
and any detrimental excess may be deterged 
through the various excretory functions ; but it is 
only during venereal excitement that they are 
secreted by the proper organs in the form of semen. 
Says a German writer — Christian Eitter, M.D. : 
"We sometimes meet, in common life, with sto- 
ries of the terrible evils which have befallen young 
persons on account of their excessive chastity ; 
nay, we have been told that the seminal fluid has 
even occasionally entered the brain of one or an- 
other of these unfortunate beings, and rendered him 
insane, with many other things equally silly and 
equally untrue. Chastity can never be excessive. 
It is always advantageous; it always promotes 
health and happiness ; it never will nor can become 
the cause of injury or disease. Yet there are to be 
found impudent wretches who invent and propagate 
these and similar falsehoods, in order to seduce the 
pure and blooming youth into the path of vice. I 



Prevalent Errors. 75 

can, however, assure my readers that if there were 
even a single possibility of disease from total absti- 
nence, it could only befall those individuals who 
overload their system with nutritious food or heat- 
ing drinks, or who indulge in excess of sleep, in 
idleness, etc." 

Prevalent Errors. — Dr. Alcott remarks, in an 
editorial note to the above paragraph of Dr. Bitter : 
"The author says, in a caption to the present chap- 
ter, which is so long that I have chosen to omit it, 
that the notion which he has been there so success- 
fully combating, viz., that the retention of the semi- 
nal fluid sometimes induces disease, has been 
encouraged even by physicians ! A most un- 
doubted fact ; for what monstrous error in habit or 
practice is there which some weak-minded physi- 
cian may not have connived at, or even encour- 
aged ! 7 ' 

Dr. Graham argues that the great debility result- 
ing from venereal excitement or self-abuse, is not so 
much to be attributed to the mere loss of semen as 
to the peculiar excitement of the nervous system. 
He observes : " Hence, therefore, sexual desire, 



76 Sexual Abuses. 

cherished by the mind and dwelt on by the imag- 
ination, not only increases the excitability and 
peculiar sensibility of the genital organs them- 
selves, but always throws an influence, equal to the 
intensity of the affection, over the whole nervous 
domain, disturbing all the functions depending on 
the nerves for vital energy — which is thereby 
increased upon or distracted from them — and if this 
excitement is frequently repeated, or long con- 
tinued, it inevitably induces an increased degree of 
irritability, and debility, and relaxation generally 
throughout the nervous and muscular tissues, and 
especially the nerves of organic life. And hence 
those lascivious day-dreams and amorous reveries in 
which young people too generally — and especially 
the idle and the voluptuous, and the sedentary and 
the nervous — are exceedingly apt to indulge, are 
often the sources of general debility, effeminacy, dis- 
ordered functions, and permanent disease, and even 
premature death, without the actual exercise of the 
genital organs ! Indeed, this unchastity of thought, 
this adultery of the mind, is the beginning of im- 
measurable evil to the human family; and while 
children are regularly though unintentionally trained 



P B E V A L B N T E R R O R S . 77 

to it by all the mistaken fondness of parents, and 
all the circumstances of civic life, it is but mockery 
in the ear of Heaven to deprecate the evil con- 
sequences, and folly little short of fatuity to at- 
tempt to arrest the current of crime that flows 
from it." 

Concerning the supposed necessity for seminal 
emissions, the same author says : " Health does not 
absolutely require that there should ever be an 
emission of semen from puberty to death, though 
the individual live a hundred years, and the fre- 
quency of involuntary nocturnal emissions is an 
indubitable proof, that the parts, at least, are suffer- 
ing under a debility and morbid irritability, utterly 
incompatible with the general welfare of the sys- 
tem ; and the mental faculties are always debil- 
itated and impaired by such indulgences. 

The frequency of involuntary emissions, when re- 
sulting from this debilitating practice, varies greatly 
with different individuals. In some they occur 
once or twice a week ; in others but once in two or 
three weeks. As a general rule, the more fre- 
quently they occur the greater is the degree of de- 
bility and exhaustion experienced by the patient on 



78 Sexual Abuses. 

the following day. With those who are extremely 
debilitated, the irritated sexual organs sympathize 
with every disturbance of the stomach or brain, and 
every casual excitement induces an involuntary 
amission of a crude and watery, or muco-seminal 
fluid, not unfrequently discolored and bloody ; and 
sometimes there is a continued dribbling of a muco- 
purulent or gonorrhoeal matter. Many husbands 
and fathers have become so irritable in the genital 
organs, in consequence of self-pollution in early 
life, that the least approach to familiarity or ca- 
ressing with their companions, has induced an 
emission, in some cases rendering them utterly im- 
potent. 

Morbid Sexuality Transmissible. — There can be 
no manner of doubt that a debilitated and irritable 
condition of the sexual apparatus may, like all other 
morbid conditions of the parents, be transmitted 
from father or mother, or both, to the offspring. I 
have had patients who have been subject to emis- 
sions on the most trivial occasions of excitement, 
from the period of puberty, and even before ; and 
this without having been addicted to masturba- 



Morbid Sexuality Transmissible. 79 

tioii at all ; and a young man was under my treat- 
ment two years ago, who assured me that he had 
been afflicted with involuntary emissions from a 
child. 

This organic inheritance explains, in part, the 
very great difference we observe in the effect which 
seminal emissions, or the causes of them — self-pollu- 
tion or venereal excesses — have in different persons. 
Some are worn out and crippled in a few months, 
while others maintain, apparently, a good degree of 
constitutional vigor for years, under the same kind 
and degree of self-abuse. 

Those who were born with a good constitution, 
and have been addicted to masturbation from the 
period of puberty, or even before, have been known 
to hold out after the vital powers were so prostrated 
that the miserable sufferers were confined to their 
beds for years ; and I have known many cases in 
which the drain of vitality was so great, from an 
almost constant seminal, or rather muco-seminal 
dribbling, that the patients were unable to sit up ; 
and in several instances the patients lingered in this 
condition for a number of years after the power of 
speech was lost, unable to turn over in bed without 



80 Sexual Abuses. 

assistance, and only able to communicate by tlie 
language of signs. In most of these cases, too, 
neither parents, friends, nurses, nor physicians, sus- 
pect the real nature of the debility until it has pro- 
gressed beyond all power of medication. 

Of some hundreds of young persons whom I 
have advised professionally, not half a dozen ever 
received the first syllable of instruction, in relation 
to this habit, from the various physicians to whom 
they had previously applied ; nor did those physi- 
cians seem to have the least idea of the nature of 
the malady for which they were prescribing blue 
pills, preparations of iron, tonic bitters, etc. Yet 
so prominently did the indications of self-abuse 
appear, that I could readily detect the fact in 
almost every case, at the first glance at the patient. 



CJraptu ^nttr. 

GENERAL TREATMENT. 

As the sufferers from inordinate sexual excite- 
ment present all possible degrees of local debility 
and constitutional injury, so will the degrees of 
health they are capable of regaining be correspond- 
ingly various. But there is one pre-requisite in all 
cases. The first condition of recovery is a prompt 
and permanent abandonment of the ruinous habit. 
Without a faithful adherence to this prohibitory 
law on the part of the patient, all medication on 
the part of the physician will assuredly fail. The 
patient must plainly understand that future pros- 
pects, character, health, and life itself, depend on an 
unfaltering resistance to the morbid solicitation ; 
with the assurance, however, that a due perseve- 
rance will eventually render, what now seems like 
a resistless and overwhelming propensity, not only 

4* 



82 Sexual Abuses. 

controllable but perfectly loathsome and undesir- 
able. 

In treating of the causes of morbid sexual excite- 
ment I have already intimated the negative manage- 
ment — the things to avoid. In the present chapter, 
therefore, I need only treat specifically of the posi- 
tive medication — the things to attend to. 

Moral and Mental Management. — It is essen- 
tial that the mind have occupation ; something to 
dwell upon besides the adulterous images which are 
ever crowding themselves into the thoughts. Yet 
it must not be severely studious nor fatiguing. 
The patient should seek to throw the current of his 
cogitations as far from himself and as much on 
other subjects as possible. Let him endeavor to 
look far onward into the future, and overlook all he 
can of the past and present. He may find conso- 
lation and encouragement in the reflection, that a 
few years devoted to physiological regeneration, 
may add twice or thrice that number to a later, and 
better, and happier period of existence. 

Nothing serves so well to strengthen and sustain 
the young person who has resolved to attempt self- 



Bodily Exercises. 83 

reformation, as a lively interest in the various re- 
forms of the day ; and in becoming a laborer in the 
cause of temperance reform, health reform, moral 
reform, etc., he finds himself surrounded by an 
influence which seems to buoy him up, and give 
him energy and fortitude to accomplish his own 
particular and personal renovation of habits. His 
reading, and studies, and reflections, should be 
carefully directed to practical and not to specula- 
tive subjects. I do not mean that he should become 
a leader among men in any sense, nor go forward 
as a champion in any cause ; this requires all the 
vigor of body and energy of mind that we find in 
those who have never wasted any portion of their 
vitality; but that he seek such persons as asso- 
ciates, and try to identify himself with and interest 
his feelings in the principles which they advocate. 

Bodily Exercises. — But mental occupation should 
never be considered as in any sense a substitute for 
bodily exercises. The vital energies which have 
acquired a habit of wasting themselves through the 
sexual apparatus, must be made to expend their 
forcS on the muscular system. The morbid irrita- 



84 Sexual Abuses. 

tion must be diffused, as it were, over the whole 
body. Hence all the exercise the patient is able to 
bear, short of absolute fatigue, is useful. 

There is, however, a great choice in the kinds of 
exercise adapted to individual cases. As far as 
possible, they should seek such as will harmonize 
with the mental exercises, and serve in some way 
to interest and amuse. In cities, a moderate course 
of gymnastic exercises is advantageous, especially 
to those who are studious or sedentary in their ac- 
customed avocations. Walking is, in the great 
majority of cases, the very best general exercise for 
those who do not labor. It is not very material 
whether the exercise be of the work or of the play 
kind, provided it is appropriate in degree, and taken 
moderately yet frequently. But some light busi- 
ness occupation is usually the best, for the reason 
that the mind recognizes some immediate object, 
some profitable return, independent of the capital 
to be acquired in health, over which some degree 
of doubt and uncertainty will always hang. It is in 
human nature, in both its healthy and its morbid 
aspects, to labor with more zest, cheerfulness, and 
satisfaction, for "small profits and quick returns,'' 



Bodily Exercises. 85 

than for larger profits with a more distant realiza- 
tion. And this principle should be kept in view 
in the management of the cases under considera- 
tion. 

There ought to be, connected with some of our 
hydropathic establishments, a farm, vegetable gar- 
den, and workshop, where invalids of this class and 
of other classes, may work their way, or a part of it ; 
that is, wdiere they can do some kind of mechanical, 
or out-door labor, and have pay for all they do. 
This plan would give the patient a double advant- 
age ; for in taking the exercise necessary to his 
recovery, he would have a sure reward as he goes 
along, and a prospect of an accumulating good in 
the future. 

For those who are not greatly reduced in 
strength, moderate and steady labor on a farm, or 
in a mechanic's shop, is not objectionable ; in fact, 
it is often the very best kind of employment. 
Young men whose home-attachments are not strong, 
and who are of a roaming disposition, often do well 
as traveling agents for good books and periodicals. 
In this way the mind can be sustained on a three- 
fold object — the recovery of health, a moderate 



86 Sexual Abuses. 

compensation for the time spent, and a better 
knowledge of the world. 

Diet. — This can hardly be too plain and simple. 
It must be strictly vegetable, as well as abstemious. 
Every kind of animal food must be prohibited, and 
even milk can seldom be used without injury — 
never at the evening meal. Good brown bread, 
wheat-meal, water biscuits, Graham crackers, 
wheaten grits, or boiled wheat, and hominy, are 
the best articles of the farinaceous kind. It is 
especially important that a good proportion of the 
food be solid, so as to secure slow- and perfect 
mastication. A majority of patients are troubled 
with a morbid craving, and feel an inclination to 
eat altogether too frequently, and some are never 
satisfied with all they can swallow. Dry solid food 
tends to correct this morbid appetite, and also 
guard against the tendency to overload the stomach. 
The evening meal should be very light, and taken 
entirely without drink. A hard cracker, or a 
crust of bread, is amply sufficient ; and unless the 
dinner is moderate, no supper should be eaten 
at all. 

The morbid appetite, or continual craving for 



Diet. 87 

food, will never subside so long as the stomach is 
habitually gorged with all the food it can swallow ; 
but may be surely overcome by a persevering ad- 
herence to the dietetic plan here recommended. 

A moderate proportion of the best fruits and 
vegetables may be taken to advantage, but many 
kinds should never be taken at the same meal, nor 
in the same day. As perfect a dietetic course as 
can be laid down is, perhaps, the following : Morn- 
ing meal — Dry toasted bread, baked apples. Din- 
ner — Wheat-meal water cakes, one boiled potato, 
one raw apple. Supper — One small hard cracker. 

The particular articles can be varied without 
affecting materially the simplicity or healthfulness 
of the whole. For examples : Breakfast — Cracked 
wheat mush, eaten with a very little syrup or 
sugar, a crust of bread. Dinner* — Baked potatoes 
and bread, with plain rice pudding. Supper — A 
dry crust of bread. Breakfast— -Hominy and hard 
crackers, with stewed fruit. Dinner — Graham 
bread, boiled cabbage, squash, peas, beans, or 
parsnips, and a boiled apple for dessert. Supper — 
A wheat-meal biscuit. 

The patient should ever bear in mind that the 



88 Sexual Abuses. 

principal danger in variety is from the excess of 
quantity, while there is no danger of simplifying 
too much.* 

Many invalids will no doubt fear starvation on 
the " meager diet" above indicated, and their ap- 
prehension will be aggravated by the feelings of 
depression which they will more or less experience 
for a time, on abandoning a stimulating diet. But 
I can confidently assure them that that is the least 
of all the dangers to be apprehended. I have 
known quite a number of young men, and several 
young ladies, adopt a dietary even more strict, and 
persevere in it, despite the advice of doctors, the 
remonstrances of parents and relatives, and the 
entreaties of friends and neighbors, for several 
months, and in several instances for two and three 
years, and In every case recover comparatively a 
good degree of health. In bad cases this rigid 
course of diet is indispensable to a cure. 

* Those who desire a full exposition of the chemical and physio- 
logical properties of all forms of alimentary substances, I must- 
refer to the Hydropathic Encyclopedia. I have also in hand a 
Hydropathic Cook Book, containing recipes for preparing food on 
physiological principles, which will soon be issued from the press 
of the same publishers, Messrs. Fowlers and Wells. 



D R I N K S L E E P . 89 



Drink. — I do not, as a general rule, approve of 
very free water-drinking in these cases. A tumbler 
or so just before the morning walk, one or two 
tumblers about the middle of the forenoon, and at 
all other times precisely what the thirst calls for, 
and no more, is the best general direction I can 
give. Probably a still more accurate rule of prac- 
tice is, for the patient to take as much water, at the 
times above mentioned, as will sit well and pleas- 
antly on the stomach, avoiding all very disagreea- 
ble chilliness or painful sense of distention. 

Sleep. — " Early to bed and early to rise" must 
be an invariable habitude. Those who are very 
dreamy and restless in the forepart of the night 
must be extremely careful of the evening meal. 
Such persons may do well to take only two meals a 
day — at 8 a.m. and 3 p.m. The bed must be as hard 
as the patient can endure without discomfort, and 
the bedding as light as possible without his suffering 
from actual cold. The bodily position during sleep 
is of some importance. The patient must avoid, if 
possible, going to sleep on the back. On first 
retiring he may assume this position, being careful, 



90 Sexual Abuses. 

however, as sleepiness comes on, to recline to one 
side. When fully awake in the morning, he must 
rise instanter, and proceed to bathing, exercising, 
etc., being careful to give the system a half an hour 
or so of rest before eating. 

. Bathing. — The bathing part of the treatment is 
exceedingly apt to be overdone. Many patients, 
who have been for years wasting their vitality at a 
rapid rate, find their way to a Water-Cure, and 
expect the presiding doctor, by some wonderful ex- 
hibition of skill, or some marvelous property of 
" cold water," is going to replenish the enfeebled 
organism, and make them over and as good as new, 
with a few packings, and plunges, and douches, etc. 
This is a great mistake. Such patients are always 
deplorably impatient. They are willing to do any 
thing or suffer any thing, provided the cure will 
come speedily. But their impatience sometimes 
defeats the very object in view — restoration. If 
the physician is candid and intelligent he will 
inform them that the process of reparation is slow ; 
that it will require weeks, probably months, and 
possibly years. Some of these impatient patients, 



Bathing. 91 



who have already spent several years in quack- 
doctoring themselves, growing worse all the while, 
will, on being told that the road to health is a long 
one, return to their nostrum-seeking experiments 
again, and devote a year or two more in vain at- 
tempts to find a specific which has no existence. 

The great majority of patients require, so far 
as the bathing processes are concerned, very mild 
treatment. The nervous system should never be 
subjected to much of a shock, nor the body greatly 
chilled with cold. All baths should have reference 
to maintaining a comfortable balance of the circu- 
lation, and securing an agreeable reaction, and the 
familiar saying, u We had better do too little than 
too much," is peculiarly applicable here. 

So great is the diversity of circumstances in 
which we find this class of patients, and so various 
their degrees of debility and susceptibility, that we 
can give no very precise directions as to the time 
and temperature of the baths; but we can give 
rules which all may apply with sufficient discrimin- 
ation. To avoid frequent repetitions, the following 
bathing processes, which are applicable to home- 
treatment, are described connectedly in this place : 



92 Sexual Abuses. 

1. Wet-Sheet Packing. — On a bed or mattress 
two or three comfortables or bedquilts are spread ; 
over them a pair of flannel blankets ; and lastly, a 
wet sheet (rather coarse linen is best), wrung out 
lightly. The patient, undressed, lies down flat on 
the back, and is quickly enveloped in the sheet, 
blanket, and other bedding. The head must be well 
raised with pillows, and care must be taken to have 
the feet well wrapped. If the feet do not warm 
with the rest of the body, a jug of hot water should 
be applied ; and if there is tendency to headache, 
several folds of a cold wet cloth should be laid over 
the forehead. The usual time for remaining in the 
pack is from forty to sixty minutes. It may be fol- 
lowed by the plunge, half-bath, rubbing, wet-sheet, 
or towel-wash, according to circumstances. 

2. Half -Pack. — This is the same as the preceding, 
with the exception that the neck and extremities are 
not covered by the wet sheet, which is applied 
merely to the trunk of the body, from the armpits 
to the hips. 

3. Half-Bath. — An oval or oblong tub is most 
convenient, though any vessel allowing the patient 
to sit down with the legs extended will answer. 



Bathing. 93 



The water should cover the lower extremities and 
about half of the abdomen. While in the bath the 
patient, if able, should rub the lower extremities 
while the attendant rubs the chest, back, and abdo- 
men. 

•i. Hip or Sitz-Bath. — Any small-sized wash-tnb 
will do for this ; although tubs constructed with a 
straight back, and raised four or five inches from 
the tloor, are much the most agreeable. The water 
should just cover the hips and lower part of the ab- 
domen. A blanket should be thrown around the 
patient, who will find it also useful to rub or knead 
the abdomen with the hand or fingers during the 
bath. 

5. Foot-Bath. — Any small vessel, as a pail, will 
answer. Usually the water should be about ankle 
deep ; but very delicate invalids, or extremely sus- 
ceptible persons, should not have the water more 
than half an inch to one inch in depth. During 
the bath the feet should be kept in gentle motion. 
Walking foot-baths are excellent in warm weather 
where a cool stream can be found. 

6. Ruobing Wet-Sheet. — If the sheet is used drip- 
pingly wet the patient stands in a tub ; if wrung so 



94 Sexual Abuses. 

as not to drip, it may be used on a carpet or in any- 
place. The sheet is thrown around the body, which 
it completely envelops below the neck ; the atten- 
dant rubs the body over the sheet (not with it), the 
patient exercising himself at the same time by rub- 
bing in front. 

7. Pail-Douche. — This means simply pouring 
water over the chest and shoulders from a pail. 

8. Stream-Douche. — A stream of water may be 
applied to the part or parts affected by pouring from 
a pitcher or other convenient vessel, held as high 
as possible ; or a barrel or keg may be elevated for 
the purpose, having a tube of any desired size. The 
power will be proportioned to the amount of water 
in the reservoir. 

9. Towel or Sponge-Bath. — Rubbing the whole 
surface with a coarse wet towel or sponge, followed 
by a dry sheet or towel, constitutes this process. 

10. The Wet- Girdle. — Three or four yards of 
crash toweling make a good one. One half of it is 
wet and applied around the abdomen, followed by 
the dry half to cover it. It should be wetted as 
often as it becomes dry. 

11. The Chest- Wrapper. — This is made of crash, 



Bathing. 95 



to fit the trunk like an under-shirt, from the neck to 
the lower ribs ; it is applied as wet as possible with- 
out dripping, and covered by a similar dry wrapper 
made of canton or light woolen flannel. It requires 
renewing two or three times a day. 

12. The Sweating- PacTc. — To produce perspira- 
tion, the patient is packed in the flannel blanket and 
other bedding, as mentioned in No. 1, omitting the 
wet sheet. Some persons will perspire in less than 
an hour ; others require several hours. This is the 
severest of the water-cure processes, and, in fact, 
very seldom called for. 

13. The Plunge-Bath. — This is employed but lit- 
tle, except at the establishments. Those who have 
conveniences will often find it one of the best pro- 
cesses. Any tub or box holding water enough to 
allow the whole body to be immersed, with the 
limbs extended, answers the purpose. A very good 
plunge can be made of a large cask cut in two near 
the middle. It is a useful precaution to wet the 
head before taking this bath. 

14. The Shower-Bath. — This needs no descrip- 
tion. It is not frequently used in water-cure, but 
is often very convenient. Those liable to a "rush 



96 Sexual Abuses. 

of blood to the head," should not allow much of the 
shock of the stream upon the head. Feeble persons 
should never use this bath until prepared by other 
treatment. 

15. Fomentations. — These are employed for re- 
laxing muscles, relieving spasms, griping, nervous 
headache, etc. Any cloths wet in hot water and 
applied as warm as can be borne, generally answer 
the purpose ; but flannel cloths dipped in hot water 
and wrung nearly dry in another cloth or handker- 
chief, so as to steam the part moderately, are the 
most efficient sedatives. 

16. Injections. — These are warm or tepid, cool or 
cold. The former are used to quiet pain and pro- 
duce free discharges ; the latter to check excessive 
evacuations and strengthen the bowels. For the 
former purpose a large quantity should be used ; 
and for the latter purpose only a small quantity. 

General Bathing Rules. — Never bathe soon after 
eating. The most powerful baths should be taken 
when the stomach is most empty. No full bath 
should be taken less than three hours after a full 
meal. Great heat or profuse perspiration is no 
objection to going into cold water, provided the 



Bathing. 97 

respiration is not disturbed, and the patient is not 
greatly fatigued or exhausted. The body should al- 
ways be comfortably warm at the time of taking 
any cold bath. Exercise, friction, dry-wrapping, 
or fire may be resorted to, according to circumstan- 
ces. Very feeble persons should commence treat- 
ment with warm or tepid water, gradually lowering 
the temperature. 

The baths which are most generally indicated in 
the cases under consideration are, the rubbing wet- 
sheet, half-lath^ hip-bath, foot-bath, and the wet- 
girdle. The towel wash is a good substitute for the 
rubbing wet-sheet, and in very feeble persons it is 
preferable, as it occasions less shock. As a general 
prescription (to be modified to suit particular cases), 
I would suggest the following : 

Rubbing wet-sheet or sponge-bath on rising in 
the morning, followed by the dry rubbing-sheet if 
the patient has an assistant, and by rubbing with 
dry towels if he has not. The time may vary 
according to the temperature of the body, and the 
state of the weather — from three to ten minutes. 

Half-bath at 75°, about 10 a.m., from two to ten 
minutes, followed as above. If this bath is im- 

5 



98 Sexual«Abuses. 

practicable, the hip-bath, as below, may be sub- 
stituted. 

Hip-bath at 70°, about 4 p.m., ten to fifteen min- 
utes. 

Foot-bath at 8 p.m. If the patient is subject to 
cold feet, put them in warm water — about 100° — 
five minutes, then dip them in cold water for half a 
minute, afterward rubbing dry with towels. Hand- 
rubbing is advisable after this bath, and also after 
the rubbing wet-sheet, provided the patient has an 
assistant. 

The above arrangement presumes the patient to 
take three meals a day. If he takes but two, the 
10 o'clock bath may be taken at 11, and the 
4 o'clock bath at 6. 

Neither the half-bath nor hip-bath should be 
taken so cold as to leave the muscles of the loins 
and lower extremities stiff and chilly for more than 
a few minutes. If these symptoms do not pass off 
after moderate exercise, the temperature must be 
raised a little or the time shortened. The former is 
generally preferable. 

Many patients will be too feeble and cold to bear 
as many baths as are given above. But in all cases 



Mechanical Means. 99 

the patient's temperature and circulation are to 
guide liini. Take as many of them, in the order 
mentioned, as can be borne without permanent dis- 
comfort. 

The wet-sheet packing is advantageous in cases 
where the skin is clogged up with bilious accumu- 
lations, and the superficial temperature not too low. 
It may be repeated daily, or semi-weekly, accord- 
ing to the effect, until the skin is thoroughly 
cleansed, which usually takes a month or two. 
Those who have been greatly reduced by seminal 
emissions, do not bear the pack well while the 
emissions continue. 

Other applications of water will be directed in 
the succeeding chapter. 

Mechanical Means. — Various mechanical con- 
trivances have been invented and experimented 
with to prevent seminal emissions. But they are 
all only applicable to the incipient stages of the 
difficulty, and then merely to such cases as are pre- 
ceded by an erection of the penis. In these cases 
they do frequently prevent the erection, and con- 
sequently the emission, yet they do nothing toward 



100 Sexual Abuses. 

removing the cause. This must be accomplished 
by the adoption of the whole regimenal course I 
have laid down. In some cases the emission has 
been prevented by a ligature, or cord, tied loosely 
around the foreskin, which is drawn over the 
glans ; if any abnormal irritation excites the erectile 
action, the string compresses the part so painfully 
as to arrest its progress and awaken the patient. 
Another contrivance is a tin, or glass, or other kind 
of tube, inclosing the part ; on the inner surface, or 
near the external end, pins or sharp points of some 
kind are fitted, which, as soon as erection com- 
mences, check it by pressing against the projecting 
organ. 



Ctjapbr fht. 



PARTICULAR CONSEQUENCES. 

The effects of sexual excesses are often manifested 
by such an assemblage of symptoms as are known 
to nosologists as specific maladies, many of which 
have also other causes. They present themselves 
in a thousand forms and phases, from the slightest 
bodily disorder and mental hallucination, to the 
most complete and fatal prostration of all the 
powers of body and mind. The most frequent 
and prominent will be considered in the present 
chapter. 

General Debility, often taking the name of dys- 
pepsia, frequently treated by physicians as liver 
complaint, and not unfrequently terminating in con- 
sumption, is the most common result of inordinate 
or excessive sexual indulgence. Marasmus is but 
another name for the same general condition, and 



102 Sexual Abuses. 

merely indicates extreme emaciation. The plan of 
treatment has already been detailed. Those, how- 
ever, who are reduced below the point of taking 
bodily exercise, must trust to one or two tepid 
spongings daily, and the dietary given in the pre- 
ceding chapter. 

Weakness of the Joints, especially in the knees, 
is occasionally manifested in a remarkable degree 
by masturbators. They walk with a swinging, 
dragging motion of the lower extremities, instead 
of a firm step, and on attempting to run are very 
apt to strike one knee behind the other and tumble 
down. In almost all large cities persons are occa- 
sionally seen tottering along the sidewalk, whose 
trembling, half-palsied limbs are unable to sustain 
the weight of the body, and whose knee-joints are 
bent almost to a right angle, in consequence of this 
habit in early life. These extreme cases are usually 
incurable. Those who are still able to walk several 
miles actively, may derive additional advantage 
from an occasional wet-sheet pack for an hour, fol- 
lowed by a half-bath at 70° two minutes, or a drip- 
ping sheet three to five minutes. 

Neuralgia is among the frequent consequences 



Particular Consequences. 103 

of all forms of sexual excesses. It may affect 
almost any part of the system. It is often experi- 
enced in the muscles of the neck, and about the 
loins. Usually persons affected with neuralgic 
pains are extremely sensitive to wet weather, east- 
erly winds, and sudden alternations of temperature. 
They require a very cautious and discriminating 
management. They should be out-door as much as 
possible in fine weather, but avoid all great expo- 
sures. The baths should be very mild in tempera- 
ture, and followed by considerable rubbing with 
the dry sheet or hand-friction. Some patients of 
this class acquire such an extreme degree of morbid 
susceptibility, that almost any bath temporarily 
aggravates the pain, and the mere touch of a cold 
damp cloth is sometimes agonizing. In such cases 
dry-rubbing, to get up a glow on the surface, should 
precede the bath, and the patient must depend 
mainly on a strict diet and suitable exercise for his 
recovery. 

Spinal Irritation is a still more common result. 
In females it is usually connected with some form 
of mis-menstruation ; in males, with debility or 
great irritability of the urinary organs ; and in both, 



104: Sexual Abuses. 

with weakness in the muscles of the back and 
loins, so that the patients, instead of sitting erect, 
are inclined to lean forward. The lower part of 
the spinal column is generally the seat of the ten* 
derness on pressure, but sometimes the upper por- 
tion, near the base of the brain, is affected. Phy- 
sicians are very apt to scarify, pustulate, or apply 
leeches or caustics to the back in these cases, sup- 
posing the cause of the spinal irritation to lie in the 
spinal marrow. Such medication invariably does 
injury. Cold wet cloths may be applied to the 
spinal column once a day and worn till they 
become dry, then removed until the next day. 
Prolonged but not very cold hip-baths twice a day, 
are also the leading measures of the bathing part 
of the treatment ; temperature 75° to 80° ; time, 
fifteen to thirty minutes. 

Distortions or Curvatures of the spine sometimes 
result from the relaxed and debilitated state of the 
muscles, which are thus rendered incapable of sus- 
taining the spinal column erect. The special treat- 
ment recommended in the case of spinal irritation 
is also useful here ; but the water should be gradu- 
ally reduced to as low a temperature as the patient 



Particular Consequences. 105 

can comfortably bear, with the view of inducing 
muscular contraction. Every pains should also be 
taken to invigorate the muscles of the back, loins, 
and abdomen, by rubbing, thumping, kneading, etc. 

Paralysis of the Lower Extremities is one of the 
occasional consequences, of which I have seen sev- 
eral cases. In some there was also, as an accom- 
paniment, and probably an immediate cause, an 
evident softening of some portion of the brain or 
spinal marrow. All such cases are necessarily 
fatal. In others the paralytic condition was the 
direct result of the waste of vital energy ; and all 
who have, to my knowledge, adopted the general 
plan of bathing and regimen recommended in this 
work, have recovered. 

Hypochondria, or Mental Despondency, is one of 
the most common sequelae of inordinate sexual ex- 
citement. Almost all of these patients have their 
minds and thoughts intently fixed on some special 
reason for despairing — some particular state, con- 
dition, pain, or sensation, which is in their imagin- 
ation irremediable ; and from this dilemma it is 
sometimes very difficult to extricate them. In the 
treatment of these patients the moral and mental 



106 Sexual Abuses. 

management must be mainly depended on, com- 
bined with as much steady and regular bodily exer- 
cise as they can well bear. In a word, occupation 
of both mind and body is the main thing needful. 
As these cases are generally attended with torpid 
skin and constipated bowels, the cold or warm pack, 
according to the temperature, and the coarsest 
food, are among the principal auxiliaries. 

Fickleness of Temper, Irresolution, etc., though 
common to the victims of self-pollution, can hardly 
be regarded as specific maladies. They are to be 
managed according to the general principles herein 
indicated. 

Insanity and Idiotcy are among the extreme and 
irretrievable consequences of sexual excesses. Dr. 
Benedict, in the Eighth Annual Report of the State 
Lunatic Asylum of the State of New York, re- 
marks : " Masturbation, as a fruitful cause of 
insanity, deserves especial attention. Fifty cases, 
admitted during the past year, we attribute to this 
cause, and we believe this to be less than the actual 
number. Many of these cases had been addicted to 
this horrid vice from their youth, and even child- 
hood, by which their mental and physical strength 



Pakticulak Consequences. 107 

was insidiously debilitated, and insanity slowly in- 
duced. 

"In addition to those fifty-live whose insanity is 
attributed to this cause, five others were admitted 
during the year, insane from other causes, and 
forty-seven of those remaining in the institution at 
the close of last year, were addicted to this vice, 
making one hundred and seven masturbators out of 
eight hundred and sixteen cases !" 

In a late report of the Massachusetts State Luna- 
tic Asylum, it was stated that thirty-two insane per- 
sons, whose insanity w r as produced by self-abuse, 
had been received during a single year. 

Early Superannuation — premature old age — is , 
the penalty which all must indiscriminately pay to 
the violated laws of their organizations. I have 
already alluded to this subject sufficiently. The 
only practical remark pertinent here is this. All 
who have unfortunately been prodigal of the fund 
of life heretofore, must hereafter be proportionately 
economical if they would prolong existence to 
" threescore and ten," or any near approximation 
to that " allotted period." 

Epilepsy. — More than one half of the cases of 



108 Sexual Abuses. 



epileptic fits which have come under my observa- 
tion during the last six years, I have been able to 
trace unmistakably to self-abuse. How great the 
proportion is in the practice of other physicians I 
am unable to say, for medical books furnish us no 
statistics on this subject. I have known several 
cases in which children commenced the habit at the 
ages of seven, eight, and nine years, and became 
epileptic two or three years afterward. A majority 
of such cases are hopeless, for the reason that they 
are seldom taken hold of in season. 

Apoplexy is noticed by several authors as the su- 
perinduced affection. During the paroxysm hot 
bottles should be applied to the feet, and cold wet 
cloths, or the pouring-bath, to the head. Tepid 
injections are also indicated. 

Tetanus and Lockecl-Jaw are rare yet possible 
consequences. The full warm, or even hot bath, is 
indicated, to relax the spasmodic action of the mus- 
cles ; afterward the case should be treated as one 
of " general debility." 

Chorea, or St. Vitus' s Dance, is among those de- 
plorable results of which almost every city and large 
village exhibits some sad examples. It is curable 



Particular Consequences. 109 

only on its first appearance, and requires the strict- 
est regimen. 

Hysteria is apt to occur in young females who 
have become constitutionally debilitated from this 
cause. It requires no attention, save the general 
treatment. 

Spitting of Blood is always a serious complica- 
tion. The patient must abstain from all violent 
exertion, eat as little food as will keep off absolute 
starvation, take frequent but very small draughts 
of cold water, and wear the chest- wrapper when- 
ever it can be borne without chilliness. 

Disordered Vision is more frequently noticed 
than any other derangement of the external senses ; 
yet all of them are liable to be affected. Walking 
foot-baths, and cool, but not very cold, eye-baths — 
holding the eyes open in water of about 70° five 
minutes once or twice a day — are the best special 
appliances. 

Impaired Hearing is, next to disordered vision, 
the most frequent of the abnormal manifestations 
in the functions of relation. It is to be mitigated 
in the same way as advised for the preceding ail- 
ment. 



110 Sexual Abuses. 

Sleeplessness is very often complained of. The 
patient retires feeling dull and drowsy, but the 
longer he remains in bed the more wakeful he be- 
comes. Toward morning he falls into a disquiet 
slumber, from which he is soon aroused, feeling 
completely exhausted for want of rest. A gentle 
sponge-bath, or rubbing the surface with a wet 
towel, and a hot-and-cold foot-bath, just before 
going to bed, are the best means of soothing the 
brain and nervous system. 

Pimples of the Face, of a deep-red, dark, livid, 
or purple hue, sometimes giving the face or fore- 
head a very rough, uneven appearance, are not 
uncommon. They will generally disappear gradu- 
ally as the general health improves, but usually leave 
some traces of their existence for years, sometimes 
during life. Cosmetics are sometimes resorted to, 
but always aggravate the difficulty. Persons trou- 
bled with these pimples should be careful and not 
sit with the face near a hot fire, nor in any way 
overheat the head. 

Inflammation of the Eyes are also common. 
Sometimes the eyelids are weak, red, and watery, 
and sometimes the conjunctiva, or white part of 



Part icu lab Consequences. Ill 

the eye, is tinged with a dark-pink stain. At the 
same time the visual organ appears languid, dull, 
glassy, and vacant in expression. The special man- 
agement is the same as for disordered vision. If, 
however, there is preternatural heat about the 
eyes, they may be bathed for a minute or two in 
cold water — about 60° — several times a day. 

Chronic Diarrhea is mentioned by several writers 
on this subject. It is attended with little pain, but 
is usually increased by the most trifling deviations 
from the accustomed diet. It requires a very dry, 
mostly farinaceous diet, and the employment of the 
wet-girdle a part of the time. It may be applied 
around the whole body, or only on the front half, 
according to the patient's ability to bear it without 
chilliness. An injection of about a gill of cool or 
cold water, at bedtime, to be retained, if possible, 
during the night, is advisable. 

Colorless Stools, denoting extreme deficiency in 
the secretion of the digestive juices — saliva, gastric, 
and pancreatic — are often observed. The liver is 
also torpid in these cases, and its functional duty 
thrown upon the skin and kidneys. It is to be 
treated on the same plan as chronic diarrhea. 



112 Sexual Abuses. 

Priapism, or painful erection, is often very ob- 
stinate and troublesome. It may occur whenever 
the patient is warm in bed ; but is usually worse 
in the morning. Sometimes it annoys the patient 
either day or night, whenever the least mental or 
bodily excitement is applied. A warm hip-bath for 
twenty minutes at bedtime, as little bedding as the 
patient can possibly be comfortable under, the ap- 
plication of a cold wet compress whenever the part 
becomes irritable, the careful avoidance of salt, 
alkalies, spices, etc., in the food, a very abstemious 
and dry diet, with no drink in the evening, consti- 
tute the special remedial means. It is also specially 
important to obviate the least tendency to costive 
bowels. 

Satyriasis and Nymphomania, an inordinate and 
almost maddening irritation of the genital organs, 
inducing a constant and almost resistless propensity 
for sexual commerce, is liable to affect the male or 
female masturbator. The dripping wet sheet, and 
tepid or warm hip-baths — 75° to 85° — should be 
employed frequently, until the inflammatory pas- 
sion abates. 

Loss of Sexual Appetite is the opposite extreme 



Particular Consequences. 113 

of sensibility, and often results from the same gen- 
eral cause. There is nothing special in the requi- 
site treatment. A few years of rest, and a life in 
conformity with the laws of life, may re-develop the 
natural sensibility. 

Impotence itself is an occasional result, and when 
complete is, perhaps, less to be lamented than when 
the ability to beget none but malformed offspring 
remains. It may be attended with that degree of 
local debility which renders sexual commerce im- 
possible, or a preternatural sensibility which pro- 
vokes a seminal emission before the act of copula- 
tion is consummated. 

Permanent Morbid Sensibility of the genital 
organs is often complained of. They are tender to 
the touch, and are frequently troubled with aching 
sensations and neuralgic pains, yet without external 
heat, redness, or swelling. The hip-bath at 80° ten 
minutes, then reduced to 70° five minutes, generally 
relieves this symptom. It may be repeated daily 
as long as necessary. 

Shriveling or Diminution of the genitals is men- 
tioned by nearly all writers on these diseases. In 
these cases no special local treatment is called for 



114 Sexual Abuses. 

until the constitutional health is re-established. 
Then frequent cold sitz-baths are useful — three or 
four times a day, for five minutes, temperature 
about 50°. 

Ba/rrenness is a frequent consequence of sexual 
excesses of all kinds. The constitutional treatment 
is all that need be attended to. 

Abortion is very frequently occasioned by exces- 
sive indulgence in married life ; and some females 
acquire a predisposition to it, by self-abuse in girl- 
hood There is no safety for such persons unless 
they refrain wholly from sexual indulgence during 
pregnancy. 

Leueorrhcea, in unmarried females is more fre- 
quently the result of masturbation than is generally 
supposed. It is true that many other causes pro- 
duce it, and that constipation of the bowels alone 
often induces it. But when this last mentioned 
cause is combined with self-abuse, the leucorrhcea 
is always severe,, and frequently followed by pro- 
lapsus of the uterus, or bowels, or both. When 
these patients are much reduced, pale, cold, and 
emaciated, the dry-pack, followed by the tepid 
sponge-bath, and one or two daily hip-baths at 



Particular Consequences. 115 

70°, are the chief measures of special medication. 
Otherwise the general treatment is sufficient. 

Menorrhagia, or excessive menstruation, is fre- 
quently the manner in which the local debility is 
manifested. Usually the monthly periods are not 
only excessive in quantity, but also too frequent in 
recurrence, and are attended with irregular swell- 
ings or bloatings of the abdomen. During the 
menstrual period the patient should, if able to sit 
up, take two or three hip-baths daily, at 60 to 70°, 
five to ten minutes ; if not, cold wet cloths should 
be applied to the abdomen and frequently changed. 

Prolajpsus Uteri, or falling of the womb, is an im- 
mediate consequence of the relaxed state of the 
vagina, and this condition may readily be produced 
by self-abuse. Like leucorrhoea, prolapsus may 
result from many other causes ; indeed, from any 
cause which debilitates the muscular system very 
much ; and prominent among these causes are con- 
stipation and the purgatives which are taken to 
remove it. Hence, in judging how far any dis- 
placement is attributable to vicious habits, we must 
take into account all the other evidences of the 
case. These cases require an extremely simple and 



116 Sexual Abuses. 

abstemious diet, vaginal injections of cool water, 
and in bad cases, mechanical treatment, that is to 
say, a replacement of the organ by mechanical means. 

Gleet, in males, is occasionally met with. The 
dribbling discharge is not a proper seminal fluid, 
but a morbid secretion, similar to that of chronic 
catarrh. It requires nothing different from the 
general plan of treatment. 

Eruptions about the genitals sometimes occur, 
and in rare cases extend over a considerable portion 
of the body, but require no peculiar treatment. If 
itching or smarting attends them, warm bathing 
should be employed sufficient to relieve the uneasy 
sensations. 

Prolapse of the Testicles is among the most fre- 
quent local deformities. It commonly affects only 
one, but sometimes both. It is owing to an extreme 
relaxation of the scrotum, which allows one or both 
to descend one, two, or three inches. After the 
general health is measurably renovated, this relaxa- 
tion may be in a considerable degree overcome and 
the parts restored by short, frequent, cold hip- 
baths, or what is still more efficient, the ascending 
douche or ascending shower. 



Particular Consequences. 117 

Swelling of the Testicle, which is not uncommon, 
usually disappears on the recovery of constitutional 
vigor, without local treatment. Whenever the 
swelling is so great as to occasion a painful sense 
of weight, a suspensory bandage should be worn. 

Enlargement of the Spermatic Cord is quite as fre- 
quently attributable to this as to any other cause. 
Neuralgic pain, or morbid tenderness of the affect- 
ed part, more or less troubles the patient. I am 
not aware of any local measures that are advanta- 
geous. 

Irritation of the Urethra is mentioned by authors. 
This may result from numerous causes, yet a tender, 
itching, or painful sensation along its course, espe- 
cially on urinating, is sometimes clearly traceable 
to the secret vice. Warm water is here again spe- 
cially indicated. 

Scalding Urination — a sense of heat during the 
passage of the urine — is still more common. Warm 
hip-baths will generally remove it. 

Cancer of the Uterus is mentioned by several 
authors as having been produced by self-abuse, and 
by excessive sexual commerce. It can only be 
treated by the competent surgeon. 



118 Sexual Abuses. 

Tabes Dorsalis was the term applied as long ago 
as the days of Hippocrates, to a condition of the 
system resulting from inordinate sexual excite- 
ment, characterized by the symptoms of a general 
decline, and a sensation on the part of the patient 
as though ants were crawling along or falling 
down the course of the spinal marrow. Practically 
we need only regard it as " general debility." 



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